Found 10025 publications. Showing page 1 of 401:
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a well-known air pollutant, mostly elevated by car traffic in cities. To date, small, reliable, cost-efficient multipollutant sensors with sufficient power and accuracy for community-based atmospheric studies are still lacking. The HAPADS (highly accurate and autonomous programmable platforms for providing air pollution data services) platforms, developed and tested in real conditions, can be a possible approach to solving this issue. The developed HAPADS platforms are equipped with three different NO2 sensors (7E4-NO2–5, SGX-7NO2, MICS-2711 MOS) and a combined ambient air temperature, humidity, and pressure sensor (BME280). The platforms were tested during the driving test, which was conducted across various roads, including highways, expressways, and national and regional routes, as well as major cities and the countryside, to analyse the environmental conditions as much as possible (Poland, 2024). The correlation coefficient r was more than 0.8, and RMSE (root mean squared error) was in the 3.3–4.3 μg/m3 range during the calibration process. The results obtained during the driving tests showed R2 of 0.9–1.0, which proves the ability of HAPADS platforms to work in the hard environmental conditions (including high rain and snow, as well as sun and a wide range of temperatures and humidity).
2026
Quantifying European SF6 emissions from 2005 to 2021 using a large inversion ensemble
Abstract. Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) is a highly potent and long-lived greenhouse gas whose atmospheric concentrations are increasing due to human emissions. In this study, we determine European SF6 emissions from 2005 to 2021 using a large ensemble of atmospheric inversions. To assess uncertainty, we systematically vary key inversion parameters across 986 sensitivity tests and apply a Monte Carlo approach to randomly combine these parameters in 1003 additional inversions. Our analysis focuses on high-emitting countries with robust observational coverage – UK, Germany, France, and Italy – while also examining aggregated EU-27 emissions. SF6 emissions declined across all studied regions except Italy, largely attributed to EU F-gas regulations (2006, 2014), however, national reports underestimated emissions: (i) UK emissions dropped from 68 (47–77) t yr−1 in 2008 to 19 (15–26) t yr−1 in 2018, aligning with the reports from 2018 onward; (ii) French emissions fell from 78 (51–117) t yr−1 (2005) to 35 (19–54) t yr−1 (2021), exceeding reports by 88 %; (iii) Italian emissions fluctuated (25–48 t yr−1), surpassing reports by 107 %; (iv) German emissions declined from 182 (155–251) t yr−1 (2005) to 97 (88–104) t yr−1 (2021), aligning reasonably well with reports; (v) EU-27 emissions decreased from 403 (335–501) t yr−1 (2005) to 225 (191–260) t yr−1 (2021), exceeding reports by 20 %. A substantial drop from 2017 to 2018 mirrored the trend in southern Germany, suggesting regional actions were taken as the 2014 EU regulation took effect. Our sensitivity tests highlight the crucial role of dense monitoring networks in improving inversion reliability. The UK system expansions (2012, 2014) significantly enhanced result robustness, demonstrating the importance of comprehensive observational networks in refining emission estimates.
2025
Revidert tiltaksutredning for lokal luftkvalitet i Tromsø
Stiftelsen NILU har, i samarbeid med Transportøkonomisk institutt (TØI), utarbeidet en revidert tiltaksutredning for lokal luftkvalitet i Tromsø kommune for perioden 2025 til 2030. Arbeidet omfatter en kartlegging av luftkvaliteten basert på trafikk-, utslipps- og spredningsberegninger for PM10, PM2,5 og NO2 for Dagens situasjon 2023, Referansesituasjonen 2030 og 2030 med tiltak. Det er beregnet risiko for overskridelse av dagens grenseverdier i forurensningsforskriften og for grenseverdier i nytt EU-direktiv som ennå ikke er tatt inn i norsk lovgiving.
NILU
2025
Denne rapporten beskriver en studie utført av NILU for Nordre Follo kommune, med støtte fra Folkehelseinstituttet. Målet var å prøve uhildet kartlegging som metode for å undersøke hvilke organisk-kjemiske forbindelser som finnes i nedbørfeltet til drikkevannskilden Gjersjøen. Som del av dette ønsket vi også å identifisere forbindelser som forårsaker feilaktige, store utslag i nitratsensorer. Ved bruk av høyoppløselig massespektrometri og miljøforensiske metoder ble 163 markører identifisert, inkludert aspirin, kreatin og kreatinin, knyttet til kloakkforurensning under kraftig nedbør. Funnene gir innsikt i kjemisk interferens og kan forbedre overvåkingssystemer og vannforvaltning.
NILU
2025
Ikke-spesifikk screening av støv fra norske husholdninger
Denne rapporten presenterer resultater fra en ikke-spesifikk screening av husstøv fra norske hjem. Totalt ble 203 kjemiske forbindelser identifisert, med ftalater som den mest dominerende stoffgruppen. Flere av de påviste stoffene er kjent som hormonforstyrrende, nevrotoksiske eller klassifisert som persistente, mobile og toksiske (PMT). Resultatene viser et endret stoffmønster sammenlignet med tidligere studier og understreker behovet for videre overvåkning av innemiljø, forskning på cocktail-effekter og bedre regulering av forbrukerprodukter.
NILU
2025
NO2-måling i omgivelsene til Eramet Sauda
På oppdrag fra Eramet Sauda AS har NILU utført målinger av NO2 i omgivelsene til smelteverket i Sauda. Målingene ble utført med NOx-monitor ved Birkelandsvegen nordøst for bedriften. I tillegg ble NO2 målt med passive prøvetakere ved 3 steder i Sauda. Måleperioden varte fra 30. august 2024 til 10. mars 2025. Norske grenseverdier for luftkvalitet (NO2) og luftkvalitetskriterier ble overholdt ved Birkelandsvegen for alle midlingsperioder. Formålet med prosjektet var å vurdere effekten av det nye energigjenvinningsanlegget (bestående av 7 gassmotorer) på NO2 konsentrasjonen. Det ble ikke funnet noen sammenheng mellom vindretning fra sør-sørvest (fra bedriften mot målestasjonen), motordrift og NO2 konsentrasjonene målt ved måleboden.
NILU
2025
Data Report 2023. Particulate matter, carbonaceous and inorganic compounds
This report presents an overview of annual statistical summaries and methods for sampling and analysis of particulate matter, carbonaceous and inorganic compounds measured under the EMEP monitoring programme in 2023.
NILU
2025
This report documents the EMEP VOC monitoring carried out in 2023. The levels of the measured species in 2023 are presented as well as the 2023-status and history of the VOC programme. The geographical pattern of the species in Europe is discussed as well as the long-term trend during the last 20 years.
NILU
2025
This report gives an overview of annual statistics and results from the monitoring programme of ozone in EMEP 2023.
NILU
2025
Biomethanol as a Marine Fuel Within Land Use Sustainability Boundaries
Global shipping is an essential, energy-efficient enabler of trade, yet it remains a hard-to-abate sector. With shipping demand projected to continue to rise in the coming decades, identifying scalable and sustainable fuel alternatives is critical. Biofuels, and particularly biomethanol, offer a promising option due to their compatibility with existing infrastructure. However, their sustainability critically hinges on land use impacts. From this Perspective, we argue that biomethanol derived from a dedicated crop could contribute to maritime decarbonisation, with ~71–77% well-to-wake greenhouse gases (GHG) reductions under cropland-only constraints. We further point to the fact that a wider adoption faces challenges such as higher costs, limited availability, and lower energy density relative to fossil fuels. Continued research and monitoring are essential to ensure that biofuel production does not inadvertently contribute to deforestation or biodiversity loss. We underscore the need for spatially sensitive biofuel deployment strategies that align maritime decarbonisation with land-system sustainability and climate objectives.
2025
2025
Fine particulate matter (PM) poses a major threat to public health, with organic aerosol (OA) being a key component. Major OA sources, hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA), biomass burning OA (BBOA), and oxygenated OA (OOA), have distinct health and environmental impacts. However, OA source apportionment via positive matrix factorization (PMF) applied to aerosol mass spectrometry (AMS) or aerosol chemical speciation monitoring (ACSM) data is costly and limited to a few supersites, leaving over 80% of OA data uncategorized in global monitoring networks. To address this gap, we trained machine learning models to predict HOA, BBOA, and OOA using limited OA source apportionment data and widely available organic carbon (OC) measurements across Europe (2010–2019). Our best performing model expanded the OA source data set 4-fold, yielding 85 000 daily apportionment values across 180 sites. Results show that HOA and BBOA peak in winter, particularly in urban areas, while OOA, consistently the dominant fraction, is more regionally distributed with less seasonal variability. This study provides a significantly expanded OA source data set, enabling better identification of pollution hotspots and supporting high-resolution exposure assessments.
2025
Heavy metals and POP measurements 2023
This report presents an overview of the annual statistics and results from the monitoring programme of heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in EMEP in 2023.
NILU
2025
Remote marine areas of the Arctic have become a sink for pollutants like Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), transported long distances from southern latitudes. This presence of contaminants is creating pressure on Arctic organisms. As such, Svalbard´s wildlife has been monitored for decades to follow temporal trends of pollutants, in addition to better understanding the effects of pollutants on Arctic wildlife.
Seabirds are a key group of Arctic animals that are particularly sensitive to the pollutants’ toxicity via effects on behavior, demography and long-term population viability. Understanding how pollutants affect population viability is essential to protect Arctic wildlife but has been an understudied topic in marine ecology.
Two populations of female common eider (Somateria mollissima) have been monitored in Kongsfjorden (Svalbard) and Grindøya (Troms) since 2007 and 1984, respectively. Concentrations of POPs have been analyzed in eiders blood samples, between 2007 and 2009 for Kongsfjorden and from 2005 to 2009 for Grindøya. Previous studies found higher concentrations of HCB (Hexachlorobenzene) for common eiders breeding in Kongsfjorden, while it is the concentrations of PCB (polychlorinated bipheyls) that are the highest for the common eiders breeding in Grindøya. Additionally, the adult survival is higher Kongsfjorden compared to Grindøya common eiders. However, the interaction between those different concentrations of POPs and the adult survival of those two populations have not been studied yet.
Here, we will investigate whether POPs may affect adult survival of female common eiders breeding both in Kongsfjorden and Grindøya. If the POP levels are sufficiently high to induce health effects, we predict that higher concentrations of POPs will negatively affect adult survival.
2025
Screening Program 2024. Substances in electronic waste facilities and wastewater treatment
The 2024 Screening Programme investigated emerging and legacy contaminants in e-waste facilities and wastewater treatment. LCD substances, flame retardants, plasticizers, and their metabolites were found in air, dust, and water near e-waste sites. Bisphenol-related compounds and follow-up substances were detected in wastewater, particularly in sludge and particles. The findings highlight environmental dispersion, treatment efficiency, and the need for continued monitoring.
NILU
2025
Assessing the siting of air quality sampling points at industrial sites
Air quality measurements at industrial locations are intended to assess emission sources typically of the largest magnitude, many of which operate over a long time and are subject to specific permitting rules. Industrial sources represent a significant contribution to the air pollution that people and ecosystems are exposed to. Therefore, appropriately sited sampling points are essential to understanding the characteristics of these emissions, which is necessary to design meaningful monitoring network, implement effective abatement strategies, and inform supplementary assessment methods such as dispersion modelling. Existing environmental legislation establishes criteria for the reporting of industrial emissions and for the design of monitoring networks on pollutant concentrations: 1) the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED), 2) the Regulation on European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR), and 3) the Ambient Air Quality Directives (AAQDs, Directives 2008/50/EC and 2004/107/EC, as well as the Revised Directive (EU) 2024/2881). The AAQDs provide rules and guidance for monitoring stations across different environments, including specific rules for those classified as industrial. In this study we have evaluated the air quality monitoring sampling points associated with industrial sources. The overarching aim is to underpin assessments by the European Commission of whether the criteria for placing industrial sampling points are applied throughout the European Union in a harmonised manner and whether the application of the criteria ensures that the highest exposure of the general population to air pollution from industrial sources is measured in all air quality zones. For this reason, we have carried out an evaluation of the 2019 monitoring network across Europe in the vicinity of industrial sources.
Publications Office of the European Union
2025
2025
Reliable quantification of polychlorinated alkanes (PCAs) remains a major challenge, hindering environmental research across diverse matrices. Each sample can contain over 500 homologue groups, collectively producing >1000 m/z ratios that require interference checks. High-resolution mass spectrometry methods vary in ionization signals and data formats and require specialized algorithms for quantification. CPxplorer streamlines data processing through the integration of three modules: (1) CPions generates target ion sets and isotopic thresholds for compound identification into the next module; (2) Skyline performs instrument-independent data integration, interference evaluation, and homologue profiling; and (3) CPquant deconvolves homologues and reports concentrations using reference standards and homologue profiles from Skyline. Evaluation of the workflow with NIST-SRM-2585 dust and ERM-CE100 fish tissue material yielded comparable results across raw data formats from different instruments. Further applications of CPxplorer across diverse matrices, including indoor dust, organic films, silicone wrist bands, and food samples, demonstrated the usefulness in biological and environmental monitoring. Compared to existing tools limited to qualitative detection, CPxplorer enables quantitative outputs, reduces processing time, and expands functionality to PCA-like substances (e.g., BCAs) and PCA degradation products (e.g., OH-PCAs). CPxplorer reduces learning barriers, empowers users to quantify PCAs across various analytical instruments, and contributes to generating comparable results in the field.
2025
Tidal Amplification in the Lower Thermosphere During the 2003 October–November Solar Storms
Abstract Using the National Center for Atmospheric Research's vertically extended version of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model nudged with reanalyses, we examine the impact of the 2003 Halloween solar storms on atmospheric tides and planetary waves in the lower thermosphere (LT). One of the largest solar flares and fastest coronal mass ejections on record occurred on 30 October, resulting in significant energy transfer via Joule heating and auroral particle precipitation in the Earth's higher latitude thermosphere. In the simulation, that occurrence creates large zonally asymmetric heating perturbations, amplifying the diurnal migrating tide (DW1), semidiurnal migrating tide (SW2), as well as non‐migrating westward and eastward tides between 120 and 200 km. Large‐amplitude bursts of DW1 in the Northern Hemisphere and non‐migrating westward tides in the Southern Hemisphere lead to westward wave forcings, which strengthen the thermospheric wind. Planetary waves are also amplified, but their forcing is much weaker than the forcing exerted by tides in the LT. Non‐migrating tides are generated by nonlinear interactions between tides, or between tides and quasi‐stationary planetary waves, and in situ processes in the LT linked to Joule heating and auroral particle precipitation. The induced disruptions of the thermospheric mean meridional circulation reinforce the Spring thermospheric branch in the Southern Hemisphere at high latitudes and oppose the Fall branch in the Northern Hemisphere. Our examination could be relevant to understand the dynamical impact of recent geomagnetic storms that occurred in May 2024 and October 2024.
2025
2025
The role of the tropical carbon balance in determining the large atmospheric CO2 growth rate in 2023
Abstract. The global annual mean atmospheric CO2 growth rate in 2023 was one of the highest since records began in 1958, comparable to values recorded during previous major El Niño events. We do not fully understand this anomalous growth rate, although a recent study highlighted the role of boreal North American forest fires. We use a Bayesian inverse method to interpret global-scale atmospheric CO2 data from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2). The resulting a posteriori CO2 flux estimates reveal that from 2022 to 2023, the biggest changes in CO2 fluxes of net biosphere exchange (NBE) – for which positive values denote a flux to the atmosphere – were over the land tropics. We find that the largest NBE increase is over eastern Brazil, with small increases over southern Africa and Southeast Asia. We also find significant increases over southeastern Australia, Alaska, and western Russia. A large NBE increase over boreal North America, due to fires, is driven by our a priori inventory, informed by independent data. The largest NBE reductions are over western Europe, the USA, and central Canada. Our NBE estimates are consistent with gross primary production estimates inferred from satellite observations of solar-induced fluorescence and from satellite observations of vegetation greenness. We find that warmer temperatures in 2023 explain most of the NBE change over eastern Brazil, with hydrological changes more important elsewhere across the tropics. Our results suggest that the ongoing environmental degradation of the Amazon is now playing a substantial role in increasing the global atmospheric CO2 growth rate.
2025
Melkøya ferskvann, nedbør, vegetasjon og jord 2024
I 2024 var det igjen tid for den tradisjonelle overvåkningen av ferskvann. I forbindelse med endringer i produksjonen og mulige økte utslipp av kvikksølv ble det gjort enkelte endringer i programmet for ferskvann samtidig som det ble iverksatt undersøkelser av kvikksølv (Hg), bly (Pb) og polysykliske aromatiske hydrokarboner (PAH) i nedbør, vegetasjon og jord. I det nye programmet er det god samlokalisering mellom prøvetakingsstasjoner for ferskvann, nedbør, vegetasjon og jordprøver.
Det ble gjennomført innsamling av prøver i ferskvann, nedbør, vegetasjon og jord fra starten av september.
Akvaplan-niva
2025