The chemistry of mercury in the stratosphere

Mercury, a global contaminant, enters the stratosphere through convective uplift, but its chemical cycling in the stratosphere is unknown. We report the first model of stratospheric mercury chemistry based on a novel photosensitized oxidation mechanism. We find two very distinct Hg chemical regimes in the stratosphere: in the upper stratosphere, above the ozone maximum concentration, Hg-0 oxidation is initiated by photosensitized reactions, followed by second-step chlorine chemistry. In the lower stratosphere, ground-state Hg-0 is oxidized by thermal reactions at much slower rates. This dichotomy arises due to the coincidence of the mercury absorption at 253.7 nm with the ozone Hartley band maximum at 254 nm. We also find that stratospheric Hg oxidation, controlled by chlorine and hydroxyl radicals, is much faster than previously assumed, but moderated by efficient photo-reduction of mercury compounds. Mercury lifetime shows a steep increase from hours in the upper-middle stratosphere to years in the lower stratosphere.

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Author Saiz-Lopez, A.
Acuña, A. U.
Mahajan, A. S.
Dávalos, J. Z.
Feng, W.
Roca-Sanjuán, D.
Carmona-García, J.
Cuevas, C. A.
Kinnison, Douglas E.
Gómez Martín, J. C.
Francisco, J. S.
Plane, J. M. C.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2022-06-28T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2025-07-11T16:02:06.289523
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:25538
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Saiz-Lopez, A., Acuña, A. U., Mahajan, A. S., Dávalos, J. Z., Feng, W., Roca-Sanjuán, D., Carmona-García, J., Cuevas, C. A., Kinnison, Douglas E., Gómez Martín, J. C., Francisco, J. S., Plane, J. M. C.. (2022). The chemistry of mercury in the stratosphere. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7s46wq3. Accessed 01 August 2025.

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