Study on the Behavior of Gaseous Mercury and its Influencing Factors in Urban AMbient Air

都市大氣의 水銀動態와 影響因子에 關한 硏究

Atmospheric gaseous mercury was automatically measured by a mercury air monitor (Mercury monitor AM-1). The sample air was led to a scrubber and washed with buffer solution, and mercury was trapped with gold coated chromosorb P(AW) was successively eluted by heating the chromosorb and then detected by the cold vapor atomic absorption spectrophotometry. $SO_2, TSP, NO_x, CO, THC$. and some of meteorological factors were also measured simultaneously with mercury. A significant correlation between the concentration of mercury and those of 2,513 measurements, gaseous mercury concentration ranged from 4.73 to 112.8 $ng/m^3$ with an annual mean of 14.7$ng/m^3$ in urban area. At this place there was a clear seasonal variation with a maximuminDecember-January and aminimum in March-June. A secondary maximum existed in August to September. THe seasonal variation was found that the gaseous mercury in ambient air has a tendency to become low in spring and high in winter. Namely, the average of concentration in winter was about two times, 19.2 $ng/m^3$, higher than that in spring. In Seoul mercury levels on some months mainly Septermber-October increase with increasing relative humidity of the atmosphere. In Olympic park air levels were 8.2 (range 4.4-23.7)$ng/m^3$ with an coefficients of variation of 0.34 and in Seoul sports complex those were 7.7 (rnage 4.4-25.5) $ng/m^3$ with an coefficients of variation of 0.38 within the Seoul olympiad holding period of time. A significant diurnal mercury variation occurs both at the measuring sites and in the period of observation.