Postcards from the Field

Introducing our newest AMNet Site – AK95 – Utqiaġvik (UUT-kee-AH-vik)

In early October, Paul Kelley and Winston Luke of NOAA’s Air Resources Laboratory (noaa.gov) traveled to Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska to install a Tekran® mercury speciation system at NOAA’s Barrow Atmospheric Baseline Observatory (noaa.gov). NOAA’s baseline observatories are administered by the Earth System Research Laboratories’ (ESRL) Global Monitoring Laboratory in Boulder, CO and are located in remote regions of the globe to measure the chemical composition of the background atmosphere.

NOAA’s baseline observatories are administered by the Earth System Research Laboratories’ (ESRL) Global Monitoring Laboratory in Boulder, CO and are located in remote regions of the globe to measure the chemical composition of the background atmosphere.

The Tekran® speciation system measures on a continuous basis atmospheric concentrations of gaseous elemental mercury, gaseous oxidized mercury, and mercury bound to particles smaller than 2.5 µm in diameter. These long-term measurements in the Arctic will continue indefinitely, and the data will be collected under the framework of the National Atmospheric Deposition Program’s (NADP) Atmospheric Mercury Network (AMNet), a collection of sites across the United States dedicated to the measurement of atmospheric mercury species. NADP is a cooperative monitoring program comprised of many groups associated with federal, state, tribal and local governmental agencies, educational institutions, private companies, and non-governmental agencies. Monitoring methodologies and operational protocols are harmonized across various NADP networks to ensure consistency in the measured data, and the data sets are publicly available at the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (wisc.edu) website.

Mercury levels in the Arctic are not only key indicators of climate change but also of the evolution of mercury dynamics in local and regional ecosystems. Human exposure to mercury derives largely from the consumption of contaminated seafood, and indigenous peoples in the region rely heavily on fishing for the bulk of their diet.

Submitted by: Winston Luke, NOAA