AME

ATMOSPHERIC MERCURY IN EUROPE

Funded by: European Commission-DG Environment

(Contract #99/134617)

Reporting Period: 1 January 1998 – 30 June 2000

The major goal is to review the current knowledge on different processes affecting the dynamics of mercury on local (i.e., urban) and European scale, and to improve our understanding of the role of particulate mercury (PM) and reactive gas phase mercury (RGM) in urban areas and over surface waters as well. Intensive atmospheric measurements of mercury and its compounds and other atmospheric pollutants (i.e., O3, NOx, H2O2, NH3) will be carried out at rural and urban sites using state-of-the-art automated and manual sampling and analytical techniques. Photochemical models will be used along with backward trajectory analysis to assess temporal and spatial patterns of major mechanisms affecting ambient concentrations and deposition fluxes of mercury and its compounds.