Found 2686 publications. Showing page 1 of 269:
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
Abstract. Airborne microplastics are a recently identified atmospheric aerosol species with potential air quality and climate impacts, yet they are not currently represented in global climate models. Here, we describe the addition of microplastics to the aerosol scheme of the UK Earth System Model (UKESM1.1): the Global Model of Aerosol Processes (GLOMAP). Microplastics are included as both fragments and fibres across a range of aerosol size modes, enabling interaction with existing aerosol processes such as ageing and wet and dry deposition. Simulated microplastics have higher concentrations over land, but can be transported into remote regions including Antarctica despite no assumed emissions from these regions. Lifetimes range between ∼17 d to ∼1 h, with smaller, hydrophilic microplastics having longer lifetimes. Microplastics are present throughout the troposphere, and the smallest particles are simulated to reach the lower stratosphere in small numbers. Dry deposition is the dominant microplastic removal pathway, but greater wet deposition occurs for smaller hydrophilic microplastic, due to interactions with clouds. Although microplastics currently contribute a minor fraction of the total aerosol burden, their concentration is expected to increase in future if plastic production continues to increase, and as existing plastic waste in the environment degrades to form new microplastic. Incorporating microplastics into UKESM1.1 is a key step toward quantifying their current atmospheric impact and offers a framework for simulating future emission scenarios for an assessment of their long term impacts on air quality and climate.
2025
Airborne microplastics on the move: Urban Europe as a source to remote regions
This study presents a comprehensive assessment of unique parallel measurements of surface airborne and deposited microplastics (AMPs) across urban and remote sites in Norway, employing pyrolysis-GC/MS for polymer-specific analysis. MPs were detected in nearly all samples, with significantly higher concentrations and fluxes observed in urban areas like Oslo, where tire wear particles (TWP) dominated (>90 % of AMP mass). Seasonal peaks in TWP coincided with the transition to winter tires, while remote sites showed consistent but lower AMP levels, indicating long-range transport (LRT) from European source regions. Parallel measurements of suspended and deposited AMPs revealed consistent polymer signatures, highlighting common sources and transport pathways. Although urban TWP contributions to PM2.5 were generally low, episodic events reached up to 30 %, raising concerns about human exposure. The dual dataset enabled a robust cross-validation of atmospheric loading estimates and facilitated integration into advanced transport models for remote sites. Our findings confirm AMPs as significant components of urban air pollution and subsequent carriers of chemical and biological contaminants to remote regions, emphasizing the need for targeted monitoring and mitigation strategies.
2025
The semi-annual oscillation (SAO) dominates seasonal variability in the equatorial stratosphere and mesosphere. However, the seasonally dependent modulation of the SAO in the stratosphere (SSAO) and mesosphere (MSAO) by sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) in the Arctic has not been investigated in detail. In this study, we examine the seasonal evolution of the SAO during 16 major SSW events spanning 2004 to 2024 using the Japanese Atmospheric General Circulation Model for Upper Atmosphere Research Data Assimilation System Whole Neutral Atmosphere Re-analysis (JAWARA). Basic features of the SAO are well captured by JAWARA, as evidenced by the SSAO and MSAO appearing at around 50 km and 85 km, respectively. The different responses of the SAO to early and late winter SSWs are particularly strong during the Northern Hemisphere winter of 2023/24. Early winter SSWs tend to significantly intensify the westward SSAO, while late winter SSWs tend to weaken the eastward SSAO. Similarly, the eastward MSAO is amplified during early winter SSWs, whereas the westward MSAO is slightly weakened during late winter SSWs. The weak MSAO response is probably due to its smaller climatological magnitude. Modulation of the SAO by SSWs is related to meridional temperature changes during SSWs through the thermal wind balance. Our findings contribute to the understanding of coupling between the tropics and high latitudes, as well as interhemispheric coupling.
2025
2025
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
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
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
2025