SNACS-mercury
From APLIS07
BrIceCamp
Coordinator: Bill Simpson, Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks
During the ice camp, the BrIceCamp project will study how halogens cause mercury deposition in the Arctic. Halogens exist in an inert form in sea salt (e.g. chloride, Cl-, and bromide, Br-); however during the springtime in the Arctic, they are episodically converted to gas-phase reactive halogens (e.g. chlorine and bromine atoms) that cause mercury deposition. Currently, we have little understanding of the way that salts become atmospherically accessible and activated to reactive halogens. Our group has recently found that saline snow on first-year sea ice is a likely source of halogens to the atmosphere. However, we need to know the bromide concentration (Br-) on the sea ice better to further this theory. To do this, we will measure the chemical composition of snow along spatial transects on the sea ice at the ice camp. To put these measurements into a context of the atmospheric chemical conditions, we will also measure ozone in the air, the depletion of which is a marker for mercury deposition chemistry.
Initial results from the Ice camp
Dan Carlson and Bill Simpson investigated ionic and mercury in snow and the atmospheric chemistry that controls deposition to the snow during the APLIS07 ice camp. A one-page description of initial results from the camp is attached below.
