As the data have just been received, our work on Pal-mer Station is only preliminary and no general conclu-sions can yet be drawn. A thorough analysis of the lidardata is scheduled for early 1980 after the field mea-surement part of the program is completed and all thedata is returned to the Desert Research Institute.

Our field party this year consisted of B. Morley, J.Warburton, and M. Faust (who relieved J . Punches totake care of winterover activities).

This work has been supported by National ScienceFoundation grant opp 76-24649.

SI. DEPOLARIZATION Of RETURN SIGNAL

23002 9 JAN 1979 PALMER STATION ANTARCTICA

- PARALLEL RETURN SIGNALPERPENDICULAR RETURN SIGNALSI. OEPOI.ARZATRN

References

INTENSITY Of RANGE CORRECTED LIDAR RETURN SIGNAL - ARBITRARY UNITS

Range-corrected lidar signature from ice or mixed-phasecloud base at Palmer Station.

An example of a lidar return from a low-level cloudlayer at Palmer Station with ice is shown in the accom-panying figure. The depolarization value is about 0.2,with not much variation during the entire depth of pen-etration into the cloud base.

Sassen, K. 1978. Air-truth lidar polarization of orographicclouds. Journal of Applied Meteorology, 17: 73.

Smiley, V. N., B. M. Morley, and B. M. Whitcomb. 1976. At-mospheric investigations in polar regions using dye lasers.Optics Communications, 18: 188-89.

Smiley, V. N., B. M. Whitcomb, B. M. Morley, and J . A. War-burton. 1979. Lidar determinations of atmospheric ice crys-tal layers at South Pole during clear-sky precipitation. (Sub-mitted to Journal of Applied Meteorology.)

Smiley, V. N., and B. M. Morley. 1979. Polarization measure-ments on Antarctic ice clouds by lidar. In preparation.

Antarctic mercury distribution in S. M. SIEGEL

comparison with Hawaii and Department of Botany

Iceland University of HawaiiHonolulu, Hawaii 96822

* Author to whom correspondence should be sent.

During the austral summer of 1978-79, atmosphericmeasurements from Mount Erebus, an active strombo-han volcano, showed air mercury (Hg) levels of the samemagnitude, and with similar proportions of elementalvapor (Hg°), as those found in such other volcanic re-gions as Iceland and Hawaii. However, the mercury con-tent of the substratum in Antarctica was consistently lowand the percentage of Hg' at nonvolcanic sites was lessthan what measurements in the other volcanic regionshad led us to anticipate (table 1).

Mercury baselines for open sea air are 0.003-0.03microgram per cubic meter. On 20 December 1975, at3,000 meters over the Weddell Sea and some 3,500 kil-ometers from Mount Erebus, but near some possiblevolcanic activity on the Palmer Peninusla, we recorded22 micrograms per cubic meter of air mercury, 68 per-cent being Hg°. At the South Pole on 27 December1978, more than 3,000 meters above sea level and nearlyhalfway between Mount Erebus and the Weddell Sea,the Hg totalled 3.3 micrograms per cubic meter, with 30percent as Hg°. In the plume of Mount Erebus, on 23December 1978, at 3,794 meters above sea level, wefound about 14 micrograms per cubic meter of total Hg;with 64 percent as Hg' (table 2).

GARY MCMURTRY

Hawaii Institute of GeophysicsUniversity of Hawaii

Honolulu, Hawaii 96822

RICHARD BRILL

Kapiolani Community CollegeUniversity of Hawaii

Honolulu, Hawaii 96822

B. Z. SIEGEL*

Pacific Biomedical Research CenterUniversity of Hawaii

Honolulu, Hawaii 96822

206

Table 1. Mercury levels In three volcanic regions

Air Mercury*Site m-3 %Hg° Soil Hg/Air Hg ratio*

IcelandThermal Areas 9.4 ± 4.4'36' 28 10.8(9)Nonthermal Areas 0.8 ± 0.2' / -

HawaiiThermal Areas 17.4 ± 3.4'220' 36 6.8(18)Nonthermal Areas 1.1 ± 0.5' ' 75+

AntarcticaThermal Areas

0 14Mt. Erebus plume 14.4(l) 64Mt. Erebus fumerole 20.8(2) 37

Nonthermal AreasCape Bird 4.15(2) 25 0.48(4)McMurdo 0.74-4.0 (10) 30 1.78 (10)

Thermal (?)Don Juan Pond 12.1 ± 4.4 (8) 62 0.29 (10)

Mean 8.2 ± 1.4 (36) 40 0.67 (34)* Number in parentheses indicates number of samples

Table 2. Mercury at Mount Erebus and remote sites

Altitude CompositionSite and Date (m) 9-3 %Hg°

Mount Erebus 3794Plume (23 Dec. 78) 14.44 64Crater edge (23 Dec. 78) 3.55 52

(6 Jan. 79) a. 6.38 20b. 7.55 21

Below rim (6 Jan. 79) 3760Fumerole (23 Dec. 78)a. 17.60 43

b. 24.08 31Below rim 3560

(23 Dec. 78) a. 2.78 33b. 4.18 39

(6 Jan. 79) 2.45 43Cape Bird

45 km N of Mt. Erebus 0 4.15(2) 25(27 Dec. 78)

McMurdo Station 0-10045 km S of Mt. Erebus(31 Dec. 78) 4.00 ± 0.35 (3) 38(7 Jan. 79) 0.74 ± 0.52 (7) 27

Don Juan Pond 135130 km W of Mt. Erebus(19 Dec. 78) 12.13 ± 4.41 (8) 65(31 Dec. 78) a. 3.64 47

b. 3.07 50South Pole Station 3000+

1600 km from Mt. Erebus(27 Dec. 78) a. 3.57 24

b. 3.08 36Weddell Sea 0

3,500 km from Mt. Erebus(20 Dec. 78) 21.76 68

- Mean 8.2 ± 1.4 (36) 40

207

Total air Hg near fumerolic sources in Hawaii Vol-canoes National Park during 1971-78 varied between2.3 and 28.5 micrograms per cubic meter; the Hg' vaporwas 13.5-31.5 percent of the total (Siegel and Siegel,1977; Siegel and Siegel, 1979). Other locations on Kil-auea volcano (Hawaii) tended to be similar in Hg' con-tent, although variable in total Hg. However, during thelate stages of the 1977 eruption, we recorded such ex-treme values as the following: at 33 meters elevation,total Hg equaled 18.5 micrograms per cubic meter, 19percent of which was Hg°; at 1,300 meters elevation,only 0.84 microgram per cubic meter total Hg wasfound, but 90 percent was Hg*; in the interisland cor-ridor over the open sea, Hg levels of 0.84-1.35 micro-grams per cubic meter were recorded in the air.

Nine years of studying air/soil mercury in Iceland andHawaii have produced a consistent picture (Eshleman,Siegel, and Siegel, 1971; Siegel, Siegel, and Thorarins-son, 1973; S. Siegel et al., 1973a; S. Siegel et al., 1973b;Siegel and Siegel, 1978a; Siegel and Siegel, 1979). Ex-cluding meteorological or topographic extremes, the Hgcontent of soils or other substrata reflects the Hg levelof the local air. In Southwest Iceland, along the northAtlantic rift (Geysir, Hekla, Krysuvik thermal area, andSurtsey), representative air Hg values are 6-37 micro-grams per cubic meter and soil Hg values range up to400 micrograms per kilogram. In contrast, air Hg valuesof 1 microgram per cubic meter are common in non-thermal areas, and soil Hg values fall to 3-5 microgramsper kilogram. In Hawaii, on the Kilauea-East Rift, airHg levels of 10-79 micrograms per cubic meter are as-sociated with soil Hg values of 100-1,900 microgramsper kilogram (but reaching 40,000 micrograms per kil-ogram in some localized areas). Air Hg values in Hawaiiof 1 microgram per cubic meter or less are associatedwith low soil Hg content.

However, even where relatively high air Hg occuredin the Antarctic, the mercury content of the substratumwas consistently low (table 3) when compared with amean crustal abundance of 50 micrograms per kilogram.The only antarctic location displaying a ratio equal to orgreater than unity was at McMurdo Station, where the"soil" Hg level of 7 micrograms per kilogram, althoughlow by world standards, was the highest substratum en-countered in Antarctica. The anomaly of the antarcticsoil/air ratio is evident when values of about 7-10 forIceland and Hawaii are compared with an antarcticmean of 0.67 (table 1).

The overall low antarctic mercury soil/air ratio resultsfrom the low Hg concentrations on the ground and notin the atmosphere. This may reflect the Antarctic's lackof genuine soil typical of vegetated areas in Iceland andHawaii.

In Hawaii and Iceland, the total air mercury decreaseswith distance from the volcanic source and the percent-age of Hg* increases. This is not the case in Antarctica,where the proportion of Hg' in the air is low and notcorrelated with distance from the source. We have dem-onstrated earlier that Hg* is released into the air by veg-etation that absorbs ionic soil mercury (Siegel, Puerner,and Speitel, 1974). The absence of this secondary mer-cury cycling by vegetation may account for our antarcticobservations. The low percentage of elemental mercuryin volcanically remote areas and the low soil/air Hg ratios

Table 3. Mercury content of substratum solids at antarcticsites

Location Mean Hg Con-tent

Samples*

McMurdo StationMuds and finesCape BirdAsh (4) 7.1 ± 5.6Don Juan PondEvaporites, sediments,2.0 ± 0.8

muds, morraine sands(16) 3.1 ± 1.2

Mt. ErebusAsh, tephras, basalts(11) 1.2±1.0

* Number in parentheses = number of samples analyzed

in the Antarctic, along with other field and laboratoryactivities (Spietel and Siegel, 1975; B. Siegel and Siegel,1976; S. Siegel and Siegel, 1976, Siegel, Siegel, and Spei-tel, 1977), further support a strong biological link in theglobal Hg cycle, which sharply distinguishes the Icelan-dic-Hawaiian mercury distribution from that observedin Antarctica.

We wish to thank the staff of the Eklund BiologicalLaboratory and the many people who have brought ussamples from across Antarctica. This research has beensupported by National Science Foundation grant DPP77-21507 to B. Seigel and S. Siegel.

ReferencesEshleman, A., S. M. Siegel, and B. Z. Siegel. 1971. Is mercury

from Hawaiian volcanoes a natural source of pollution? Na-ture, 233: 471-72.

Siegel, B. Z., and S. M. Siegel. 1976. Unusual mercury accu-mulation in lichen flora of Montenegro. Water, Air and SoilPollution, 5: 335-37.

Siegel, B. Z., and S. M. Siegel. 1978a. Mercury emission inHawaii: Aerometric study of the Kalalua eruption of 1977.Environmental Science and Technology. 12: 1036-39.

Siegel, B. Z., and S. M. Siegel. 1978b. The Hawaii GeothermalProject: An aerometric study of mercury and sulfur emis-sions. Geothermal Resources Council Transactions, 2: 507-09.

Siegel, B. Z., and S. M. Siegel. 1979. Mercury and other toxicemissions from Kilauea: Site and time patterns. Presentedbefore the Division of Environmental Chemistry, ACS/CSJChem. Congr. Honolulu, Hawaii. April, 1979. Abstract, part1, no. 3.

Siegel, B. Z., S. M. Siegel, and T. W. Speitel. 1977. Selectivityin mercury-copper and mercury-iron accumulation in plants.Water, Air and Soil Pollution, 8: 285-9 1.

Siegel, B. Z., S. M. Siegel, and Freyr Thorarinsson. 1973. Ice-landic geothermal activity and mercury of the Greenlandicecap. Nature, 241: 256.

Siegel, S. M., A. Eshleman, I. Umeno, N. Puerner, and C. W.Smith. 1973a. The general and comparative biology of toxicmethals and their derivatives: Lead and mercury. In Pro-ceedings of the Workshop on Mercury in the Western Environment,D. R. Buhler, pp. 119-34. Corvallis, Oregon: ContinuingEducation Publications.

Siegel, S. M., N. J . Puerner, and T. W. Speitel. 1974. Releaseof volatile mercury from vascular plants. Physiol. Plant., 32:174-76.

Speitel, T. W., and S. M. Siegel. 1975. Auxin- and carbon diox-ide-sensitive effects of mercury and iodine vapors in plantsenescence. Plant and Cell Physiology, 16: 383-86.

Siegel, S. M., and B. Z. Siegel. 1976. A note on soil and water

208

mercury levels in Israel and the Sinai. Water, Air and SoilPollution, 5: 263-87.

Siegel, S. M., and B. Z. Siegel. 1977. Mercury fall-out in Hawaii.Water Air and Soil Pollution, 9: 113-18.

Siegel, S. M., B. Z. Siegel, A. M. Eshleman, and K. Bachmann.1973b. 1973a. Geothermal sources and distribution of mer-cury in Hawaii. Environmental Biology and Medicine, 2: 81-89.

Operational meteorology, DeepFreeze 79

GLENN C. ROSENBERGER

U.S. Naval Support Force, AntarcticaPort Hueneme, California 93043

Environmental support was provided within theMcMurdo Weather Office area of responsibility, whichincludes all of Antarctica, the flight track and shippinglanes between New Zealand and McMurdo and theoceanic area South of 60 degrees South, between 120degrees East through 180 degrees to 150 degrees West.The environmental support consisted of: (1) recording,encoding and transmitting all weather observations incompliance with U.S. commitments to the World Mete-orological Organization and Antarctic Treaty agree-ment; (2) ice and weather reconnaissance in support ofMilitary Sealift Command (Msc) and U.S. Coast Guard(USCG) vessels operational in Antarctic waters; (3) encod-ing and transmitting inflight air reports (AIREPs) fromU.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, Royal New Zealand, and Aus-tralian Air Force flight crews; and (4) providing mete-orological instrumentation kits to the U.S. Antarctic Re-search Program and international field parties in supportof the meteorological observation program.

Forecast services, as in previous years, provided by theMcMurdo Weather Office included: aviation forecastsfor all Deep Freeze (DF) and Ice Cube (New Zealand andAustralian) aircraft, terminal and area forecasts for U.S.field camps and stations, local area forecasts for theMcMurdo complex and Scott Base, ship route forecastsfor all DF, MSC, and USCG vessels, and severe weatherwarnings (high wind, wind chill, and low visibility con-ditions) for the McMurdo/Williams Field/Ice RunwayComplexes.

The U.S. maintains four permanent and one summer-only meteorological reporting stations in Antarctica. Ayear-round surface and upper air program is conductedat McMurdo and Amundsen-Scott (South Pole) Stations,while a year-round surface synoptic program is con-ducted at Siple and Palmer Stations. Byrd Surface Campprovides a summer-only surface and upper air obser-vation program. The table summarizes the U.S. obser-vational program during DF 79.

The installation of Radioisotope Thermoelectric Gen-erators (RTG's) as power sources for Automatic WeatherStations (Aws's) was met with enthusiasm as personnel

from Stanford University, NSFA, and vxE-6 combinedefforts to install six RTG's and seven AWS'S on the con-tinent. The implant sites were located at Byrd SurfaceCamp, Asgard Range in the dry valleys, Minna Bluff,Ross Island, White Island, and Marble Point. Two AWS'Swere positioned at Byrd Surface Camp with a commonRTG power supply to support the First Global GARP Ex-periment (FGGE) data collection effort. Data are relayedvia NIMBUS VI to CONUS for dissemination to the prin -cipal investigators and other users.

Meteorological satellites remain the primary datasource over the data-sparse antarctic region. With thedemise of the United States' N0AA-4 and N0AA-5 satel-lites, the Russian METEOR 2-2 and 2-3 satellites providedAutomatic Picture Transmission (APT) visual satellite im-agery during the summer season. In early February,modified satellite equipment was received that enabledMcMurdo to collect TIR0S-N visual and infrared im-agery. The unit failed shortly after installation, forcingthe operational meteorologists back to the METEOR sat-ellites for the only source of real time satellite imagery.

In December, an intense upper level ridge producedrecord high temperatures at McMurdo and South PoleStations. McMurdo recorded a sizzling +49.3° F (9.6° C)on the 29th while South Pole Station peaked at +7.5° F(-13.6° C)on the 27th.

The only major storm of the season occurred on 8February when a maximum wind gust of 64 knots wasrecorded. The storm lasted for 18 hours but was notenough to carry out the annual ice pack. Weather chartsand satellite pictures on 7 February depicted an oc-

Table 1. U.S. Antarctic Station Observation ProgramObservations Taken

Station Surface Aviation Upper SatelliteAir

aMcMurdo CSCCaSouth Pole CSCaSiple CSapalmer CaByrd SSSallSCG IcebreakersCaResupply shipsCR1SP (J-9) Camp SDarwin Glacier Camp SDome S

a Observations transmitted; all others available from McMurdoWeather Center

C - Continuous programS - Summer only

209