ARL News

ARL Research Hits The Front Cover Of ES&T

 

November 14, 2001

The November 1 print issue of Environmental Science and Technology has a news feature on recent mercury research in Barrow, Alaska, featuring a photograph of the ARL instrumentation operated on the roof of the CMDL observatory. The photograph was taken by Steve Brooks of the ARL group in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The investigations of atmospheric mercury and its deposition are in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. They have been especially rewarding. Papers describing the results are soon to be published in ES&T and in “Water and Soil Pollution.” Especially high levels of reactive gaseous mercury will be reported. This reactive mercury constitutes a small part of the total atmospheric burden of mercury, but is thought to be the major compound that deposits to the earth and subsequently affects ecosystems. Reactive gaseous mercury appears to be preferentially generated at high latitudes. As a consequence, deposition to high latitude ecosystems is much greater than to others.

Contact information: Bruce B Hicks
Phone: (301) 713-0684
e-mail: bruce.hicks@noaa.gov