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Characteristics of atmospheric total gaseous mercury concentrations (TGM) and meteorological parameters observed in Chennai metropolis, South India

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Abstract

Mercury is a pollutant that is used everywhere, is harmful, and has a global impact. The ambient Total Gaseous Mercury (TGM) concentrations in the Chennai metropolis areas were measured in this study. Because of various anthropogenic source pollutants, studies of atmospheric mercury in this city are extremely significant. The measurement was conducted using a high-resolution mercury vapor analyzer (Tekran 2537B) instrument in February and March 2016. The annual mean concentration of TGM in the Chennai metropolis was 8.89 mg m−3 and 8.01 mg m−3, respectively. The extreme aggregate recurrence between the directions is WNW to NNW and NNE to ENE, and TGM was released about 39% in this region, according to this research. We performed statistical studies, and the results of the principal component analysis and conditional probability function suggest that mercury sources are equivalent to other atmospheric pollutants such as SO2, CO, NO2, and PM2.5, which are predominantly emitted by urban and industrial combustion plants. The meteorological parameters and TGM concentration have a direct relationship, according to continuous measurements of TGM in the air and dendrogram maps, and they have been essentially controlled by sunlight-based radiation. Some estimates of atmospheric mercury focuses have been conducted in the urban region; however, as far as we know, our findings are the essentials that unveiled concerning environmental aggregate vaporous mercury observed in a necessary industrialized metropolitan zone in India. This research will aid in the development of more effective management measures to reduce the effects of atmospheric mercury in the urban environment and public safety in a megacity, as well as those who may be harmed by the long-distance transit of TGM. The assessment of mercury emissions and the effectiveness of Chennai’s mercury control policies is warranted by long-term observations of mercury in the city—and background regions in Chennai.

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The manuscript and data are the authors’ original work, and the manuscript has not received prior publication and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. The manuscript now submitted is not a copied or plagiarized version of some other published work.

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Funding

The authors express their gratitude toward The Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS), European Commission, for providing instrumental (Grant Agreement no. 265113) and technical support, and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Chennai, for providing meteorological data. We would like to thank Manikanda Bharath K for helping with the measurement of total gaseous mercury analysis. The First author acknowledges and thanks to Key Laboratory of china’s environmental system, College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou- P.R. China for the Postdoctoral researcher (Award Number: 252813, dated 10/04/2020). National Key Research and Development Program of China and the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA) provided financial support for RAMAMOORTHY AYYAMPERUMAL academic visit to Lanzhou University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MOE Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental system, College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, People’s Republic of China

    Ramamoorthy Ayyamperumal & Xiaozhong Huang

  2. Institute for Ocean Management, Anna University, Chennai, Tamilnadu, 600025, India

    Manikanda Bharath Karuppasamy

  3. School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, People’s Republic of China

    Gnanachandrasamy Gopalakrishnan

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  1. Ramamoorthy Ayyamperumal
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All authors listed on the title page have contributed significantly to the work, have read the manuscript, attest to the validity and legitimacy of the data and its interpretation, and agree to its submission.

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Correspondence to Ramamoorthy Ayyamperumal.

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Responsible Editor: Venkatramanan Senapathi

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Recent advanced techniques in water resources management

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Ayyamperumal, R., Karuppasamy, M.B., Gopalakrishnan, G. et al. Characteristics of atmospheric total gaseous mercury concentrations (TGM) and meteorological parameters observed in Chennai metropolis, South India. Arab J Geosci 14, 1424 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-021-07803-y

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