Influence of meteorological factors on the atmospheric mercury measurement by a novel passive sampler

- Impact of meteorological factors on a passive mercury sampler was identified.
- Correction factor for the sampling rate calculation was obtained.
- The passive sampler was applied in Beijing and Tibet to test its performance.

In recent years, an incentive for developing simple and cost-effective samplers that are capable of monitoring over an extended period and require nonattendance at remote locations was obvious. Compared to traditional active sampling approaches, passive samplers require no electric power and are more flexible in field deployment, thus they are more appropriate for screening applications and long-term sampling. However, the performance of passive samplers may be influenced by meteorological factors, therefore inducing bias for the result of passive sampling. In this study, the effects of temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed on the performance of a novel passive sampler for gaseous mercury were investigated. The meteorological factors were well controlled in an exposure chamber. The passive samplers were tested in different conditions: temperature ranging from −10 to 35 °C, relative humidity ranging from 25 to 90%, wind speed ranging from 0.5 to 5.0 m s−1. The results showed that temperature and relative humidity had no significant influence on the performance of the passive sampler. However, wind speed was found to have significant impact on the sampling rate of the passive sampler. Wind correction should be considered when making comparisons among samplings with different average wind speeds. In the field application in Beijing and Tibet site, the passively measured data were well correlated with the active measurements.