Atmospheric Mercury Pollution in the Xi’an Area, China, Studied by Differential Absorption Lidar
<p>Overview schematic of the measurement site in the Lintong district of Xi’an city. (<b>a</b>) The location with respect to Xi´an city and a mercury mine location. (<b>b</b>) Close-up of the Lintong district. The three spots labelled with different numbers indicate the different locations of the lidar system during measurements, while the green, dashed line marks the position of the emperor Qin mausoleum mound. A 360° scanning monitoring was conducted at site 1. Vertically resolved measurements of the concentration were made at site 2. Finally, from site 3, the atmospheric mercury content in two different directions was measured, with one pointing towards the urban area and the other one towards the suburban area.</p> "> Figure 2
<p>Example of measurement data; (<b>a</b>) lidar returns for the on- and off-resonance wavelengths are shown; (<b>b</b>) zoom-in of on- and off-resonance curves from 600 to 1200 m; (<b>c</b>) DIAL curve, obtained by dividing the on- by the off-resonance lidar returns; fitted ratio and concentration calculated from the DIAL curve. The total data integration time was 5 min, corresponding to 6000 averaged transients and resulting in the range-resolved concentration curve, where the sliding integration interval was about 75 m.</p> "> Figure 3
<p>The 360° mapping of mercury concentration from 21:30 August 4, to 6:30, August 5, 2016. Each sector is averaged for 7 min with 60 sectors altogether. The wind direction was from the northeast as indicated in blue arrows. In certain directions, the range covered is more limited; this is particularly true in the south–east direction, where the strongly increased light background level due to the early morning sun impaired the available signal-to-noise ratio. The concentrations were measured along the laser beam, which had an elevation of about 5 degrees corresponding to 10–55 m height for the 100–600 m range. The concentration value range resolution was 75 m.</p> "> Figure 4
<p>Vertical monitoring of mercury concentrations at the second measurement site 2. Clear and varying concentration structures could be observed, while aerosols exhibited little structure. The wind direction was from south to east.</p> "> Figure 5
<p>Comparison of mercury concentrations in two different directions. The light blue arrow is directed towards the suburban area and the blue arrow towards the Lintong urban area. The green dashed line indicates the position of the emperor Qin tomb mound.</p> "> Figure 6
<p>(<b>a</b>) Mercury average concentration in the Qin mausoleum area during a period with weather changes; (<b>b</b>) temperature change and (<b>c</b>) wind speed variance during the monitoring period; the blue arrows in (<b>c</b>) indicate the wind direction. Weather data are from the local Lintong weather service.</p> ">
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Principles and Methods
3. Measurements and Results
3.1. Measurement System
3.2. Measurement Site
3.3. Sample Differential Absorption Lidar Recording
3.4. Area Surveillance Measurements
3.5. Vertical Monitoring
3.6. Urban–Suburban Comparison
3.7. Representative Monitoring over a Time Period of Two Weeks
4. Discussion and Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
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Duan, Z.; Zhao, G.; Zhu, S.; Lian, M.; Li, Y.; Zhang, W.; Svanberg, S. Atmospheric Mercury Pollution in the Xi’an Area, China, Studied by Differential Absorption Lidar. Atmosphere 2021, 12, 27. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12010027
Duan Z, Zhao G, Zhu S, Lian M, Li Y, Zhang W, Svanberg S. Atmospheric Mercury Pollution in the Xi’an Area, China, Studied by Differential Absorption Lidar. Atmosphere. 2021; 12(1):27. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12010027
Chicago/Turabian StyleDuan, Zheng, Guangyu Zhao, Shiming Zhu, Ming Lian, Yiyun Li, Weixing Zhang, and Sune Svanberg. 2021. "Atmospheric Mercury Pollution in the Xi’an Area, China, Studied by Differential Absorption Lidar" Atmosphere 12, no. 1: 27. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12010027