Sea Surface Temperature variation linked to elemental mercury concentrations measured on Mauna Loa

The concentration of Gaseous elemental Mercury (GeM) recorded at the Mauna loa observatory in Hawaii between during the period 2002 - 2009 has been analyzed using the empirical Mode Decomposition technique.This technique has been used in numerous contexts in order to identify periodical variations in time series data.The periodicities observed in the sea surface Temperature collected by five buoys, three in the equatorial Pacific, and two to the south of Hawaii over the same period are also observed in GeM concentrations measured at the Mlo. The lag times in the observed periodicities are related to the position of the buoys with respect to the measurement site. This demonstrates a direct link between climatological phenomena, in this case sea surface Temperature, and measured GeM and reflects the influence of ocean sea surface Temperature on GeM evasion. This is the first long-term experimental evidence of such a direct effect on GeM evasion from the oceanic surface driven by temperature.