Found 10521 publications. Showing page 1 of 421:
HTAP3-OPNS is a multi-model exercise designed to support the revision of the Gothenburg Protocol under the UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP). Using an ensemble of Chemical Transport Models (CTMs) and Chemistry-Climate Models (CCMs), this study investigates the long-range transport and impacts of ground-level ozone, particulate matter (PM), and nitrogen and sulphur deposition across different global regions. The project aims to assess the contributions of regional versus extra-regional emission sources, evaluate the suitability of current models, and project changes in air pollution under future emission scenarios and climate conditions. A series of perturbation simulations will enable the development of an ensemble emulator to explore and evaluate potential mitigation strategies efficiently. This paper outlines the scientific and policy questions motivating the study, describes the experimental design, including input datasets, model configurations, and required outputs, and discusses methodologies for data handling and analysis. The results will provide crucial insights for policy decisions aiming to improve air quality, protect human health, and protect ecosystems worldwide.
2026
2026
Non-Technical Summary
Digital Product Passports (DPPs) could help make products easier to repair, refurbish, and recycle by improving access to information about their materials and life cycle. This study examines their potential across major European product groups, including heat pumps, solar panels, printers, ICT equipment, and batteries. For the EU27, we estimate that DPP-enabled improvements could raise circularity from 14.8% to 45.0%, with substantial material and economic savings. The results provide a practical baseline for assessing how digital tools may support the European transition towards a more circular economy.
Technical Summary
DPPs are expected to support circular economy strategies by improving information availability across product value chains. Building on the CE-RISE project, we assess their potential contribution to recycling- and refurbishment-related circularity for heat pumps, photovoltaic panels, printers, ICT equipment, and batteries. The analysis combines production and trade statistics, a PRISMA 2020-compliant systematic review, and evidence-informed scenario parameterisation. We construct material-flow and circularity indicators for Europe over 2010–2023, distinguish the EU27 from non-EU Europe (Switzerland, Norway, and Türkiye), and quantify a DPP scenario with sensitivity intervals. For the EU27 in 2023, baseline circularity is estimated at 14.8%, compared with 45.0% under the DPP scenario (95% sensitivity interval: 28.6–61.4). This corresponds to potential savings of 2.5 Mt of materials and EUR 27.9 billion (bn), with sensitivity intervals of 1.1–3.8 Mt and EUR 12.7–43.1 bn. We additionally estimate refurbishment-related employment exposure using Eurostat production value per employee in NACE J. The results establish an evidence-informed baseline for evaluating DPP-enabled circularity gains and future policy impacts.
Social Media Summary
DPPs could raise EU27 circularity from 14.8% to 45.0%, with major material and economic savings.terial and economic savings. The results provide a practical baseline for assessing how digital tools may support the European transition towards a more circular economy.
2026
Ozonhullet er enormt: Har bare vært større to ganger før
Ozonhullet over Antarktis har vokst til rundt 27 millioner kvadratkilometer. Det er ikke grunn til å slå alarm, følge NILU-forsker Kjetil Tørseth.
2026
2026
Classification of Radar Zones on Selected Glaciers in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard
Glacier facies are characteristic properties of glaciers that are an observable and mappable determinant of their health. The occurrence and distribution of facies depend upon several contributing factors such as climatic shifts, sudden events, temperature, precipitation, overall deglaciation, etc. Seasonal variations of facies in one year and annual variations across several years are effective markers of seasonal and long-term glacial evolution. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) allows for efficient generation of seasonal data within multilayer composites which can be exploited for mapping facies. In this study, we utilized Sentinel-1 data to create seasonal composites from 2016-2023 and mapped facies of selected glaciers, in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. We utilized unsupervised classification to obtain facies maps in a data-centric approach. This involved modulating the number of output thematic classes across sets of 3, 5, and 7, as well as changing the spatial extent from multiple glaciers to a single glacier in the classification workflow. Thematic classification revealed mixed clusters across all years and polarizations. Our analysis suggests that seasonal variability of facies leads to mixed signals within a single pixel causing misclassification. Additionally, the spatial extent of the input data drives fluxes in thematic mapping, suggesting that changes in local and global raster statistics can limit spatial scale transferability of a mapping workflow. The present results place thematic classification of glacier facies into a practical context for future applications. Our upcoming experiments will include a longer time-series, various polarizations, and advanced information extraction methods, leading to improved understanding of the operational applications of seasonal SAR data for mapping glacier facies.
2026
2026
Urban areas face growing challenges in ensuring equitable access to essential amenities amid increasing populations and resource constraints. Active mobility modes, including walking and cycling, offer sustainable solutions to these challenges but are significantly influenced by environmental factors. This study introduces a comprehensive framework for evaluating the spatial equity of urban active mobility, defined in this study as the fair spatial distribution of segment-level walkability and bikeability along with neighborhood-level accessibility. Using Oslo, Norway, as a case study, the framework assesses pedestrian and bicycle networks. Accessibility to key amenities was evaluated using a cumulative opportunities approach. Results reveal that approximately 23.5% of Oslo’s population experience active transport inequity, with limited access to well-scored mobility routes. The analysis also showed that over 50,000 individuals reside in areas where detours do not yield a feasible improvement in the active travel experience, resulting in another form of active mobility inequity. By identifying areas where infrastructure improvements can enhance active travel and accessibility, this framework provides insights to promote equitable mobility systems.
2026
Geometrid moth outbreaks are important natural disturbances in mountain birch (Betula pubescens ssp. czerepanovii) forests of northern Fennoscandia and are expected to intensify with climate change. Impacts of these outbreaks and moth herbivory on biogenic volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions of birch remain unquantified despite the importance of VOCs in plant-herbivore interactions and atmospheric chemistry. Here, we quantify in situ VOC emission responses of mountain birch (n = 256) to naturally increasing geometrid herbivory across three consecutive growing seasons. We show that VOC emissions increased with rising herbivore pressure across the years, culminating in the outbreak, during which early-season VOC emissions were higher than at peak herbivory. At peak herbivory, birch emitted more complex VOC blends, indicating seasonal shifts in composition. Following the outbreak, a second leaf flush sustained emissions of some VOCs. Our findings demonstrate that VOC emission rates and compositions are dynamically linked to leaf phenology and herbivory intensity across multiple years.
2026
Substantial efforts and improvements in air quality across Europe lowered levels of air pollutants including particulate matter (PM) in the last decades. However, significant proportion of the European population still lives in areas exceeding WHO recommendations, especially in Northern Italy, Balkans, and Eastern Europe, including Serbia. Targeted PM mitigation strategies require extensive air quality monitoring and modelling including source apportionment (SA) studies. In the past, numerous SA studies were conducted for Belgrade city, capital of Serbia. Nevertheless, comparisons across the results are difficult, as they encompass different datasets of pollutants contained in PM fractions such as elements and/or ions and/or PAHs. Here, the aim is to offer a broader insight on PM 10 sources at an urban background site in Belgrade by including 34 species as input variables for SA (carbonaceous aerosols, elements, ions and specific organic tracers). For SA, the USEPA PMF 5.0 software was applied. The factor that dominated PM 10 mass was biomass burning (21 %), primarily during heating season, followed by ammonium sulphate (18 %) and mineral dust (17 %). A mixed traffic and industrial activity accounted for 15 % of PM 10 mass while contribution of factors from biological origin, primary biological aerosol particles and biogenic secondary organic aerosols from isoprene, was 10 % each. Mixed factor of long-range transport and road salt/local combustion contributed to the PM 10 mass 9 %. This analysis provides more detailed perspective on the composition and sources of PM 10 in Belgrade, both from anthropogenic and natural, including biological origin. These findings are valuable for defining targeted PM 10 mitigation strategies.
2026
Background
Tire wear particles release additives and transformation products into the environment. Among these, p-phenylenediamines (PPDs) and their quinone transformation products (PPD-Qs), including 6PPD-Q, have attracted increasing attention. However, data on tire wear contaminants (TWCs) in Central and Eastern Europe remain limited, and their hydrolytic stability is poorly characterized. This study investigated the hydrolytic stability of 16 TWCs, optimized sample pre-treatment, and assessed their occurrence and preliminary ecological risks in water and soil samples from northern Poland.
Results
Under OECD Test Guideline 111 conditions, parent PPDs generally showed lower hydrolytic stability than PPD-Qs. Ten TWCs were detected in soils, with benzothiazole (BTH) reaching 387 ng/g, whereas all target analytes were detected in water, with 6PPD-Q occurring at 1.85–297 ng/L and BTH at up to 326 ng/L. Moreover, PPD-Qs predominated over parent PPDs in water, whereas the opposite pattern occurred in soils. Additionally, sites subject to greater traffic influence generally showed more complex TWC profiles. A preliminary environmental risk assessment based on measured concentrations indicated that 6PPD-Q posed high ecological risks at all water sites.
Significance
This study provides the first dataset on TWC occurrence in surface waters and soils in Poland. The findings demonstrate the environmental relevance of PPD transformation products and support their inclusion alongside parent tire additives in environmental monitoring and risk assessment. The observed ecological risk associated with 6PPD-Q further highlights the need for continued monitoring of tire-derived contaminants in Polish aquatic environments.
2026
Revised direct radiative forcing of airborne microplastics suggests warming
Microplastics are a common airborne pollutant, capable of being transported over large distances and with potential to alter the radiative properties of the atmosphere in large enough quantities, with implications for global climate. Since the first estimates of microplastic radiative forcing were published in 2021, new constraints on many aspects of the spatial and temporal distribution of airborne plastics and their physical and optical properties have emerged. Using these updated findings concerning the size distribution of airborne microplastics, new spectral absorption data for coloured plastics, and a new microplastic emissions dataset, we investigate the sensitivity of the direct radiative effect of airborne microplastics. We find clear-sky effective radiative forcings ranging from −3.28 to +46.7 mW m−2 depending on assumptions concerning colour, size distribution, vertical profile and spatial distribution. Assuming likely real-world conditions—a mix of coloured microplastics, a power law size distribution and distributing microplastics non-uniformly through the troposphere based on a new emissions dataset—we calculate an updated estimate of +42.1 ± 4.62 mW m−2 for a global-average surface concentration of 3.99 microplastics m−3. This revised radiative forcing is at least as large in forcing magnitude as the contributions of a number of other species routinely evaluated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Our findings suggest that microplastics are likely contributing to atmospheric warming and, given that plastic pollution is projected to increase, should be included in climate change projections.
2026
Coarse-mode aerosol particles influence the environment, climate, and human health in diverse ways depending on their type. While mineral dust and sea spray aerosol (SSA) dominate this size range, rarer biological particles can have outsized impacts, such as initiating hydrometeor freezing at relatively warm temperatures. Accurate type-specific characterization of coarse-mode aerosol is therefore essential for investigating their roles in climate and the environment. We provide a new reference dataset for fluorescence spectra and morphology characteristics of coarse-mode aerosols from common sources, including pollen, dust, bacteria, and microplastics, measured in controlled experiments with a Multiparameter Bioaerosol Spectrometer (MBS). Comparisons with published datasets revealed consistent source-dependent fluorescence features, but also highlighted similarities between biological and non-biological particles that can bias fluorescence-based classifications.
To explore solutions for these confounding similarities, we developed a supervised machine learning classification algorithm integrating fluorescence and morphology information, and evaluated it using MBS and comprehensive chemical tracer observations from Zeppelin Observatory, Svalbard. This evaluation illustrates challenges for inductive methods in distinguishing biomass burning from biological particles, and dust from SSA, suggesting that important particle classes may be missing and/or laboratory-generated aerosols significantly differ from real-world counterparts. We show that domain adaptation using complementary observations can help address these difficulties. Compared to a fluorescence-only approach, the domain-adapted algorithm reproduces the previously published annual bioaerosol cycle while yielding higher summertime concentrations matching those reported from offline analyses. This open-source algorithm provides a basis for quantifying bioaerosols across diverse environments and can be refined with future field and laboratory efforts.
2026
2026
Environmental pollutants in the terrestrial and urban environment 2025
Samples from the urban terrestrial environment in the Oslo area were analysed for metals and a large number of organic environmental pollutants. The selected sample types that were analysed were sparrowhawk egg and liver samples of red fox and badger. Biomagnification potential was estimated based on detected data for relevant predator-prey pairs using data from year 2021 to 2025.
NILU
2026
Måleprogram for tungmetallinnhold i støv og svevestøv i Rambergstua
NILU har kartlagt konsentrasjoner og kilder til tungmetaller i støv og luft i Rambergstua etter funn av høye blynivåer i 2025. Original rosemaling fra 1784 er hovedkilden, med høyt blyinnhold i hvit, rød og grønn maling, samt kvikksølv i rødfargen. Støvsugd støv inneholder fortsatt tungmetaller, men blynivået er vesentlig lavere enn i 2025. Svevestøv og kvikksølvgass ligger langt under Folkehelseinstituttets (FHI) helsebaserte luftkvalitetskriterier. Forvitret maling faller raskt til gulvet fremfor å holdes svevende.
Det konkluderes med at bygget er trygt å oppholde seg i. Det anbefales regelmessig støvsuging, opphør av bespisning, begrenset overflateberøring og god håndvask for å sikre et trygt innemiljø.
NILU
2026