Abstract
Uncertainty-weighted time averaging of total gaseous mercury concentrations in ambient air, with associated robust uncertainties, has been performed for concentrations measured by the U.K. Heavy Metals Monitoring Network between 2007 and 2009. The results have been compared with averages produced using standard time-averaging methods with a view to investigating the properties of the new method and whether it represents an improvement over current practice.
Highlights
Mercury remains an important environmental pollutant because of its toxicity and persistence in terrestrial and aquatic biosystems
We recently proposed a novel method of performing time averaging, which used information about the uncertainty of individual measurement results to produce an uncertainty-weighted average of a time series of measurements and a robust uncertainty estimate based on a least median squares assessment of how uncertainty is related to the concentration level being measured[11]
The recovery of the tube used for the qualityassurance step prior to measurement may vary, and this will impact on the uncertainty of all measurements made until the recovery test
Summary
Mercury remains an important environmental pollutant because of its toxicity and persistence in terrestrial and aquatic biosystems. This paper compares the annual average values obtained at nine sites around the U.K. that have measured TGM during 2007, 2008, and 2009, using the traditional time-averaging procedure and the novel uncertainty-weighted method, and examines in detail the differences in the two datasets produced.
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