Themed collection Highlights from Environmental Science: Atmospheres in 2024

The development of indoor air pollution inventories for different environments is crucial to quantify contributions of multiple and time-dependent sources and activities to air pollutant emissions and to mitigate the potential health consequences.

Microplastics (MPs) are emerging contaminants that require attention in sampling, analysis, and characterization in both indoor and outdoor air pollution to mitigate the potential dangers they pose to public health and the economy.

Carbon monoxide is a priority pollutant that is suitable as an indicator for assessing indoor air quality. Monitoring should preferably be embedded in an intelligent network of different sensors.

This article reviews scientific evidence for the potential environmental impacts of stratospheric aerosol injection, a form of solar radiation geoengineering.

Formation of thio-perhemiacetal from HPMTF prevents OCS formation after transition to the aqueous phase, improving the model atmospheric OCS budget.

PM_2.5 concentrations from fuel stacking scenarios in Cucochucho, Purepecha highlands of Mexico. The study integrates local emissions and neighborhood pollution impacts to estimate air quality.

A 1 km spatial resolution of vegetation emission inventory.

A thermal desorption GC-tandem MS method was developed to measure vapor-phase PFAS and their potential migration into indoor air.

Co-located measurements of aerosol and wet deposition composition at Acadia National Park reveal insights into aerosol–precipitation interactions.

This study investigates the impact of forest fires on air quality in India's northeastern (NE) region, focusing on Guwahati, Tezpur, and Aizawl.

Higher redox activity was determined for the finest particles for both outdoor and indoor aerosols. DTT redox activity of particulates had strong correlations with organic and inorganic species for outdoor and indoor samples.

In polluted environments, the condensation sink, along with relative humidity and aerosol liquid water content, plays a key role in suppressing new particle formation events, which appear largely unaffected by aerosol chemical composition.

Metal speciation of volcanic aerosol from Mt Etna, an open vent, persistently degassing volcano in Europe.

Cleaning detergents are a source of numerous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which are highly reactive towards ozone leading to the formation of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) in indoor environments.

SOA formation was modelled with the CTM COSMO-MUSCAT equipped with URMELL comprising sophisticated isoprene and aromatic chemistry schemes directly coupling SOA formation to actual chemical processes including transport-related regime shifts.

This study contributes insights into the air quality challenges faced by two rapidly urbanising cities in Uganda and lays the groundwork for informed decision-making to protect public health and promote a sustainable environment.

A modified framework for efficiently modeling OA, considering POA evaporation and SOA formation from VOCs, IVOCs, and SVOCs was established, showing substantial improved model performance.

Indoor BrC-containing cooking organic aerosols (BrCOA) can act as sensitizers generating the first excited state of molecular oxygen, singlet oxygen, under indoor lighting conditions. Sustained singlet oxygen steady-state levels lead to prolonged oxidation of indoor aerosols impacting air quality.

The autofluorescence of airborne microplastics is detected online on a single particle level down to 500 nm particle size.

New estimates indicate that current reserves would 'bust' IPCC RCP budgets – yet companies still explore and develop new reserves. Why is this and what can governments do about it?