DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL MERCURY IN THE AMBIENT ATMOSPHERE OF SEOUL AND ITS DIURNAL, MONTHLY AND ALTITUDINAL VARIATIONS

The distribution of total mercury in the ambient atmosphere or Seoul d uring the period April, 19688 to March, 1989 was evaluated. The method used in this study involves absorption of gaseous mercury species in the atmosphere on Chromosorb(R) A coated with gold based on gold amalg amation. The trapped mercury was thermally released and determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. Air sampling was carried out at 8 poin ts spread over Seoul and classified into 3 groups - within a 5 km, 10 km, 15 km radius from the city center. Three rural points which repres ented sparse population and little industrial activity were also studi ed for comparison. The atmospheric mercury concentrations in Seoul ran ged from 5.0 to 88.8 ng.m-3 (mean 25.1 ng.m-3), while those in rural a reas ranged from 1.0 to 7.0 ng.m-3 (mean 3.8 ng.m-3). The distribution of mercury depending on the distance from the urban center was evalua ted and seasonal, diurnal altitudinal variations of atmospheric mercur y were also described.