NOAA’s Plans for Monitoring Mercury in the Gulf of Mexico Region

1. NOAA’s Plans for MonitoringMercury in the Gulf of Mexico Region Winston Luke, Steve Brooks, Mark Cohen NOAA/Air Resources Laboratory Prepared for the Gulf Coast Mercury Research Collaboration Meeting May 18-19, 2006 Pensacola, FL

2. Motivation and Goals • Establish long-term data record of ambient concentrations (Hg0, RGM, FPM) • Discern trends in atmospheric concentrations • Derive dry deposition estimates • Concurrent measurements of secondary and co-emitted primary pollutants • Elucidate source-receptor relationships • Correlation with ancillary trace species to better understand the origins and chemical cycling of mercury in the atmosphere • Data set for model evaluation

3. Siting Considerations • An Ideal Site would: • Be representative of background marine or continental air mass conditions the majority of the time, but would… • Occasionally be fumigated by clearly discernible and attributable local sources • Have good aerodynamic fetch in all sampling directions to facilitate inference of RGM dry deposition • Be co-located with MDN or event-based Hg deposition measurements • Be co-located with ancillary trace gas, aerosol, and met measurements (NOX, O3, SO2, CO, PM, radiation, WS, WD, etc.) • Be co-located with ongoing Hg water column/sediment/tissue sampling programs in a well defined watershed

12. Site Power Access Shelter Ancillary Meas. Florida Ellyson Ind. Park Yes Yes Yes NOX, SO2, O3, PM2.5, Tekran, event Hg, NADP Pace Site –Pens. No Yes No Event Hg Mississippi Grand Bay NERR No Yes No None NSIL/PAS Yes Yes Bldg None Gulf Coast Res. Lab No Yes No None –DEQ station? Alabama DISL -storage shed No Yes Yes None DISL -met tower No Yes No None DISL -classroom Yes Yes Bldg None MDN AL-02 No Poor No NADP, MDN MDN AL-24 Yes Yes Yes O3, NADP, MDN, PM2.5 Weeks Bay NERR Yes Yes No None