Recent advances in atmospheric mercury measurement technology, aircraft sampling, and application of near-real-time flux techniques have dramatically expanded and improved the data on mercury fluxes and behavior in the atmosphere. It seems that these new approaches have most commonly led to the discovery of new sources of Hg emissions to the atmosphere, increases in earlier estimates of emissions or better quantification of emissions previously underestimated, and increased estimates of the rates of re-emission of deposited mercury. On the whole, we have seen many new sources quantified (e.g. wildfires), but few new sinks. If the global atmospheric pool is not increasing, current conceptualizations of the global cycle may be missing some important sinks. If both sources and sinks have increased, more rapid cycling would suggest a shorter atmospheric lifetime than historically believed.