Mercury deposition to snow and ice and the potential linkage between the lower atmosphere and the cryosphere in northern Alaska

Douglas, T., Sturm, M., Simpson, W., Blum, J., Perovich, D., Alvarez-Aviles, L., Keeler, J., Lammers, A., Biswas, A. (2005) American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, San Francisco.

We investigated a wide range of snow and ice forms as potential scavengers for atmospheric mercury during mercury depletion events (MDEs). Our work was part of a large campaign near Barrow, Alaska in the spring of 2005 (LEADEX-2005). Gaseous and reactive phase mercury, ozone and halogen oxide measurements were made at numerous locations along the Arctic Ocean Coast as part of the campaign and allowed us to identify when MDEs were occurring. Results from previous work implicated sea ice leads and the near shore coastal snow pack as locations where elevated mercury concentrations in frost flowers (75-185 ng/L) and surface hoar ($\sim$900 ng/L) were likely. In LEADEX-2005 the previous work was expanded by sampling snow along transects away from the lead edge and from daily sampling of diamond dust and surface snow at a site located 6 kilometers inland from the lead. Vapor condensate was also collected on chilled sample bottles hoisted above the lead on a 2 m$^{2}$ kite and from a 2-m high pole. We also sampled surface hoar, rime ice, wind slab, fresh snow and blowing snow near the leads. Diamond dust was collected in glass trays and rime was scraped from the leading edge of an unmanned aerial vehicle wing. Nilas and frost flowers of varying ages were collected from a boat in open water at the lead. Elevated mercury concentrations were measured in virtually every type of vapor deposited snow or ice form, including some samples that yielded concentrations well over 1000 ng/L. Our results suggest that deposition of mercury to snow and ice during MDEs is dependent on a combination of four factors: 1) scavenging during crystallization or snow fall, 2) impaction of mercury laden aerosols onto crystalline surfaces, 3) sublimation of snow and ice, and 4) condensation driven by temperature gradients. We believe these four factors combine to control elevated mercury concentrations where the lower atmosphere and cryosphere meet.