Atmospheric mercury species over central and Northern Europe. Model calculations and nordic air and precipitation network for 1987 and 1988

A chemical scheme based upon current knowledge of physicochemical forms and transformation reactions of atmospheric mercury has been implemented into a regional pollutant dispersion model for Europe. Existing databases for anthropogenic mercury emissions in Europe have been updated for 1987 and 1988 using new information on source data from eastern European countries including the former German Democratic Republic. Concentrations of total gaseous and particle associated mercury in air and mercury in precipitation calculated by the model are compared with observed values at Roervik in southwestern Sweden, Aspvreten, south of Stockholm and other locations of the Nordic network, on a daily basis. The results show that the model is capable of simulating long-range transport of mercury from Central Europe to Scandinavia including discrete events with peak concentrations in air and precipitation in the range of 10 ng m−3 and 100 ng −1, respectively. Coinciding observed and calculated peak concentrations indicate that exceptionally high mercury emissions, most probably from chlor-alkali industry and lignite coal combustion in East Germany and Czechoslovakia, must have occurred in 1987 and 1988.