Quantifying Asian and biomass burning sources of mercury using the Hg/CO ratio in pollution plumes observed at the Mount Bachelor observatory

Abstract Total airborne mercury (TAM) and carbon monoxide (CO) were measured in 22 pollution transport “events” at Mt. Bachelor Observatory (MBO), USA (2.8 km asl) between March 2004 and September 2005. Submicron particulate scattering ( σ sp ) , ozone ( O 3 ) , and nitrogen oxides ( NO y ) were also measured and enhancement ratios for each chemical and aerosol species with CO were calculated. Events were categorized based on their source regions, which were determined by a combination of back trajectories, satellite fire detections, chemical and aerosol enhancement ratios, and meteorology. The mean Δ TAM / Δ CO values for each source region are: East Asian industrial ( 0.0046 ± 0.0013 ng m - 3 ppbv - 1 , n = 10 events, 236 h), Pacific Northwest U.S. (PNW) biomass burning ( 0.0013 ± 0.008 ng m - 3 ppbv - 1 , n = 7 events, 173 h), and Alaska biomass burning ( 0.0014 ± 0.0006 ng m - 3 ppbv - 1 , n = 3 events, 96 h). The Δ TAM / Δ CO means from Asian long-range transport (ALRT) and biomass burning events are combined with previous estimates of CO emissions from Chinese anthropogenic, global biomass burning, and global boreal biomass sources in order to estimate the emissions of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) from these sources. The GEM emissions that we calculate here are: Chinese anthropogenic ( 620 ± 180 t y - 1 ), global biomass burning ( 670 ± 330 t y - 1 ) , and global boreal biomass burning ( 168 ± 75 t y - 1 ) , with errors estimated from propagating the uncertainty in the mean enhancement ratios and CO emissions. A comparison of our results with published mercury (Hg) emissions inventories reveals that the Chinese GEM emissions from this study are higher by about a factor of two, while our estimate for global biomass burning is consistent with previous studies.