Wet deposition and atmospheric mercury monitoring in Celestún, Yucatán, México, as part of the Global Mercury Observation System : mercury concentration in ambient air: results 2012

This report describes work conducted by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in the contest of GMOS (Global Mercury Observation System). GMOS is an FP VII funded large-scale collaborative project aiming at the establishment of a Global Mercury Observation System including ocean-based, ground-based and atmospheric measurement activities under the umbrella of the GEO/GEOSS and the UNEP's Mercury program. Within this 5 year project that started in 19 Nov 2010, JRC got the task to set-up a ground based station for measuring total atmospheric Mercury in Yucatán, Mexico. The system is fully automatic and transmits the acquired raw data via internet to the JRC for data analysis and evaluation prior to further reporting to the GMOS coordinator. Moreover, the time series obtained for Hg will be reported in the framework of Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution (LRTAP-Convention) co-chaired by the JRC (Climate change Unit). In order to assist the JRC in the set up and routine maintenance of the Hg monitoring station, cooperation was initiated with the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change - Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (INECC-SEMARNAT) in Mexico City and DUMAC foundation in Yucatán. INECC agreed to assist the JRC in selecting an appropriate site partner, support maintaining the instrumentation, taking care of the wet deposition sampling/dispatch logistics, and supply meteorological data from the selected site. Data regarding the total gaseous mercury concentration in air measured during the year 2012 at Celestún, Yucatán, México are here reported. The annual TGM average obtained from 44537 data was 1.047 ± 0.271 ng/m3. The minimum value (0.50 ng/m3) was registered from February to May, the lowest monthly average (0.752 ng/m3) was recorded in April. The maximum value (2.822 ng/m3) was observed in March, while the highest monthly average TGM value was obtained in June (1.388 ng/m3).