Elevated Tropospheric Iodine Over the Central Continental United States: Is Iodine a Major Oxidant of Atmospheric Mercury?

Previous efforts to measure atmospheric iodine have focused on marine and coastal regions. We report the first ground-based tropospheric iodine monoxide (IO) radical observations over the central continental United States. Throughout April 2022, IO columns above Storm Peak Laboratory, Colorado (3,220 m.a.s.l.) ranged from 0.7 ± 0.5 to 3.6 ± 0.5 × 10 (average: 1.9 × 10 molec cm). IO was consistently elevated in air masses transported from over the Pacific Ocean. The observed IO columns were up to three times higher and the range was larger than predicted by a global model, which warrants further investigation into iodine sources, sinks, ozone loss, and particle formation. IO mixing ratios increased with altitude. At the observed levels, iodine may be competitive with bromine as an oxidant of elemental mercury at cold temperatures typical of the free troposphere. Iodine-induced mercury oxidation is missing in atmospheric models, understudied, and helps explain model underestimation of oxidized mercury measurements.