Kevin Perry

Mercury in the Air

Dr. Kevin D. Perry
Department of Atmospheric Sciences
University of Utah

Speciated measurements of atmospheric mercury have been made at the UT96 AMNet site sinceJuly 1, 2009 using a Tekran® Ambient Air Mercury Monitor. The UT96 site is located on theeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake and is subjected to daily lake/land breeze wind reversals.These wind reversals alternately bring air to the receptor site from over the lake (daytime)and from the adjacent urbanized areas (nighttime). The site is also periodically impacted bynortherly winds after the passage of cold fronts. These northerly breezes do not pass over thelake or urbanized regions and typically result in pristine (i.e., background) concentrations ofatmospheric mercury. The net result of these wind patterns is a single site that can be used tostudy background mercury concentrations, interactions with a marine-like boundary layer, andlocal/regional pollution sources.

Dr. Kevin Perry is an associate professor and chairman of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences atthe University of Utah. He holds a B.S. degree in meteorology from Iowa State University and a Ph.D. inatmospheric sciences from the University of Washington. His primary research interests are concernedwith identifying the sources, sinks, transport, and chemical transformations of particulate matter andmercury in the atmosphere. He has operated an AMNet mercury dry deposition site on the easternshore of the Great Salt Lake since July 2009 and is currently funded by the Environmental ProtectionAgency to analyze data from the site.