Articles | Volume 26, issue 16
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-11561-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-11561-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
17 Aug 2026
Research article |
| 17 Aug 2026
| 17 Aug 2026
Tracking air volumes for assessing the effect of urban aerosols on convective precipitation: a multi-member modeling study
Friederike Keil
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Geesthacht, Germany
Markus Quante
Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Geesthacht, Germany
Bernd Heinold
Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany
Volker Matthias
Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Geesthacht, Germany
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Bernd Heinold, Philipp Weiss, Sadhitro De, Anne Kubin, Jason Müller, Fabian Senf, Philip Stier, and Ina Tegen
Geosci. Model Dev., 19, 6167–6187, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-6167-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-6167-2026, 2026
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Anisbel Leon-Marcos, Moritz Zeising, Manuela van Pinxteren, Sebastian Zeppenfeld, Astrid Bracher, Elena Barbaro, Anja Engel, Matteo Feltracco, Ina Tegen, and Bernd Heinold
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Jamie R. Banks, Bernd Heinold, and Kerstin Schepanski
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Andreas Walbröl, Janosch Michaelis, Sebastian Becker, Henning Dorff, Kerstin Ebell, Irina Gorodetskaya, Bernd Heinold, Benjamin Kirbus, Melanie Lauer, Nina Maherndl, Marion Maturilli, Johanna Mayer, Hanno Müller, Roel A. J. Neggers, Fiona M. Paulus, Johannes Röttenbacher, Janna E. Rückert, Imke Schirmacher, Nils Slättberg, André Ehrlich, Manfred Wendisch, and Susanne Crewell
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Michael Weger and Bernd Heinold
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Lea Fink, Matthias Karl, Volker Matthias, Sonia Oppo, Richard Kranenburg, Jeroen Kuenen, Sara Jutterström, Jana Moldanova, Elisa Majamäki, and Jukka-Pekka Jalkanen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 10163–10189, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10163-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10163-2023, 2023
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The Mediterranean Sea is a heavily trafficked shipping area, and air quality monitoring stations in numerous cities along the Mediterranean coast have detected high levels of air pollutants originating from shipping emissions. The current study investigates how existing restrictions on shipping-related emissions to the atmosphere ensure compliance with legislation. Focus was laid on fine particles and particle species, which were simulated with five different chemical transport models.
Fabian Senf, Bernd Heinold, Anne Kubin, Jason Müller, Roland Schrödner, and Ina Tegen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8939–8958, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8939-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8939-2023, 2023
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Wildfire smoke is a significant source of airborne atmospheric particles that can absorb sunlight. Extreme fires in particular, such as those during the 2019–2020 Australian wildfire season (Black Summer fires), can considerably affect our climate system. In the present study, we investigate the various effects of Australian smoke using a global climate model to clarify how the Earth's atmosphere, including its circulation systems, adjusted to the extraordinary amount of Australian smoke.
Lea Fink, Matthias Karl, Volker Matthias, Sonia Oppo, Richard Kranenburg, Jeroen Kuenen, Jana Moldanova, Sara Jutterström, Jukka-Pekka Jalkanen, and Elisa Majamäki
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 1825–1862, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1825-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1825-2023, 2023
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Potential ship impact on air pollution in the Mediterranean Sea was simulated with five chemistry transport models. An evaluation of the results for NO2 and O3 air concentrations and dry deposition is presented. Emission data, modeled year and domain were the same. Model run outputs were compared to measurements from background stations. We focused on comparing model outputs regarding the concentration of regulatory pollutants and the relative ship impact on total air pollution concentrations.
Bernd Heinold, Holger Baars, Boris Barja, Matthew Christensen, Anne Kubin, Kevin Ohneiser, Kerstin Schepanski, Nick Schutgens, Fabian Senf, Roland Schrödner, Diego Villanueva, and Ina Tegen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 9969–9985, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9969-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9969-2022, 2022
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The extreme 2019–2020 Australian wildfires produced massive smoke plumes lofted into the lower stratosphere by pyrocumulonimbus convection. Most climate models do not adequately simulate the injection height of such intense fires. By combining aerosol-climate modeling with prescribed pyroconvective smoke injection and lidar observations, this study shows the importance of the representation of the most extreme wildfire events for estimating the atmospheric energy budget.
Ronny Badeke, Volker Matthias, Matthias Karl, and David Grawe
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 4077–4103, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-4077-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-4077-2022, 2022
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For air quality modeling studies, it is very important to distribute pollutants correctly into the model system. This has not yet been done for shipping pollution in great detail. We studied the effects of different vertical distributions of shipping pollutants on the urban air quality and derived advanced formulas for it. These formulas take weather conditions and ship-specific parameters like the exhaust gas temperature into account.
Michael Weger, Holger Baars, Henriette Gebauer, Maik Merkel, Alfred Wiedensohler, and Bernd Heinold
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 3315–3345, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-3315-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-3315-2022, 2022
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Numerical models are an important tool to assess the air quality in cities,
as they can provide near-continouos data in time and space. In this paper,
air pollution for an entire city is simulated at a high spatial resolution of 40 m.
At this spatial scale, the effects of buildings on the atmosphere,
like channeling or blocking of the air flow, are directly represented by diffuse obstacles in the used model CAIRDIO. For model validation, measurements from air-monitoring sites are used.
H. E. Markus Meier, Madline Kniebusch, Christian Dieterich, Matthias Gröger, Eduardo Zorita, Ragnar Elmgren, Kai Myrberg, Markus P. Ahola, Alena Bartosova, Erik Bonsdorff, Florian Börgel, Rene Capell, Ida Carlén, Thomas Carlund, Jacob Carstensen, Ole B. Christensen, Volker Dierschke, Claudia Frauen, Morten Frederiksen, Elie Gaget, Anders Galatius, Jari J. Haapala, Antti Halkka, Gustaf Hugelius, Birgit Hünicke, Jaak Jaagus, Mart Jüssi, Jukka Käyhkö, Nina Kirchner, Erik Kjellström, Karol Kulinski, Andreas Lehmann, Göran Lindström, Wilhelm May, Paul A. Miller, Volker Mohrholz, Bärbel Müller-Karulis, Diego Pavón-Jordán, Markus Quante, Marcus Reckermann, Anna Rutgersson, Oleg P. Savchuk, Martin Stendel, Laura Tuomi, Markku Viitasalo, Ralf Weisse, and Wenyan Zhang
Earth Syst. Dynam., 13, 457–593, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-457-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-457-2022, 2022
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Based on the Baltic Earth Assessment Reports of this thematic issue in Earth System Dynamics and recent peer-reviewed literature, current knowledge about the effects of global warming on past and future changes in the climate of the Baltic Sea region is summarised and assessed. The study is an update of the Second Assessment of Climate Change (BACC II) published in 2015 and focuses on the atmosphere, land, cryosphere, ocean, sediments, and the terrestrial and marine biosphere.
Sara Jutterström, Filip Moldan, Jana Moldanová, Matthias Karl, Volker Matthias, and Maximilian Posch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15827–15845, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15827-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15827-2021, 2021
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For the Baltic Sea countries, shipping emissions are an important source of air pollution. This study investigates the contribution of shipping emissions to the acidification and eutrophication of soils and freshwater within the airshed of the Baltic Sea in the years 2012 and 2040. The implementation of emission control areas and improving energy efficiency significantly reduces the negative impact on ecosystems expressed as a decrease in the exceedance of critical loads for sulfur and nitrogen.
Volker Matthias, Markus Quante, Jan A. Arndt, Ronny Badeke, Lea Fink, Ronny Petrik, Josefine Feldner, Daniel Schwarzkopf, Eliza-Maria Link, Martin O. P. Ramacher, and Ralf Wedemann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 13931–13971, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13931-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13931-2021, 2021
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COVID-19 lockdown measures in spring 2020 led to cleaner air in central Europe. Densely populated areas benefitted mainly from largely reduced NO2 concentrations, while rural areas experienced lower reductions in NO2 but also lower ozone concentrations. Very low particulate matter (PM) concentrations in parts of Europe were not an effect of lockdown measures. Model simulations show that modified weather conditions are more significant for ozone and PM than severe traffic emission reductions.
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Short summary
Using model simulations, we studied convective weather events to see how urban aerosol emissions influence cloud microphysics and precipitation. By tracing urban air volumes from convective clouds back to their emission sources, we could isolate the effects of emissions. The results show that urban emissions affect precipitation differently depending on the meteorological situation, highlighting the complex and case-dependent role of cities in shaping local rainfall.
Using model simulations, we studied convective weather events to see how urban aerosol emissions...
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