Data · dataset · 2026
Estimation of mercury emissions from forest fires, lakes, regional and local sources using measurements in Milwaukee and an inverse method
Listed in National Center for Atmospheric Research
Gaseous elemental mercury is a global pollutant that can lead to serious health concerns via deposition to the biosphere and bio-accumulation in the food chain.
Description
Hourly measurements between June 2004 and May 2005 in an urban site (Milwaukee, WI) show elevated levels of mercury in the atmosphere with numerous short-lived peaks as well as longer-lived episodes. The measurements are analyzed with an inverse model to obtain information about mercury emissions.
The model is based on high resolution meteorological simulations (WRF), hourly back-trajectories (WRFFLEXPART) and a chemical transport model (CAMx). The hybrid formulation combining back-trajectories and Eulerian simulations is used to identify potential source regions as well as the impacts of forest fires and lake surface emissions. Uncertainty bounds are estimated using a bootstrap method on the inversions.
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Comparison with the US Environmental Protection Agency's National Emission Inventory (NEI) and Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) shows that emissions from coal-fired power plants are properly characterized, but emissions from local urban sources, waste incineration and metal processing could be significantly under-estimated. Emissions from the lake surface and from forest fires were found to have significant impacts on mercury levels in Milwaukee, and to be underestimated by a factor of two or more.
Links
Get the data
- Publisher page n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7d50nqv ↗
documentation · download · from data ucar edu
Where it is published
- data.ucar.edu /dataset/estimation-of-mercury-emissions-from-forest-fires-lake… ↗
National Center for Atmospheric Research dataset page
landing page · from data ucar edu
Catalogue records · 1
- CKAN API data.ucar.edu/api/3/action/package_show?id=991a17ae-e959-4992-b05e-5dd8c3f02… ↗
metadata API · from data ucar edu
Topics
- From keywords
- Earth & Environmental Science · Ocean & Atmospheric Science
- Inferred from text
- Environmental biogeochemistry 76%
Provenance · 1 source records, 8 field assertions
| Source | Key | Last seen | Raw |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Center for Atmospheric Research | 991a17ae-e959-4992-b05e-5dd8c3f02c37 | 12 d ago | JSON v1 |
| Field | Assertion | Extractor | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| concepts[field].anzsrc:field:410501 | enrichment · data ucar edu | taxonomy-embedding@1.1.0 | title+keywords+description (76%) |
| concepts[field].local:field:earth-environmental | mapping · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:ocean-atmospheric | mapping · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| created_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| description | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | /notes |
| publication_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| title | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | /title |
| updated_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 |