Particulate matter (PM) is a vital pollutant that severely impacts human health, ecosystem well-being, and climate systems. In this review, the importance of vertical profiling is considered for understanding PM behavior between different layers of the atmosphere, and it includes modern techniques used such as meteorological towers and building methods, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), aircraft, and satellite-based aerosol optical depth measurements. A systematic review was conducted, sourcing 150 articles published between 2000 and 2023, using relevant keywords such as Particulate Matter, Vertical Profiling, Environmental Impacts, and Climate Change from databases like Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar. Key findings illustrate the vertical variations in PM levels associated with interactions among urban environments, meteorology, and specific atmospheric processes such as cloud formation, radiative forcing, and long-distance transport of pollutants. PM's effects on biodiversity, nutrient cycles, and ecosystem stability are also discussed. The environmental impacts of PM deposition, including biodiversity loss, nutrient cycling disruption, and ecosystem destabilization, elucidate widespread chronic anthropogenic particulate causes of long-term ecological damage around the globe. The study also examines relevant regulatory frameworks, specifically air quality standards, and policies, underpinning mitigation strategies. This review discusses how PM pollution is an increasingly alarming health risk. It reiterates the importance of demanding effective regulations on the local and global levels to counteract detrimental environmental and climatic consequences. This review clearly shows the immediate threats of PM. It should form a wake-up call to develop more effective monitoring tools and stringent regulatory measures against this omnipresent pollutant.

The abrupt warming events punctuating the Termination 1 (about 11.7-18 ka Before Present, BP) were marked by sharp rises in the concentration of atmospheric methane (CH4). The role of permafrost organic carbon (OC) in these rises is still debated, with studies based on top-down measurements of radiocarbon (14C) content of CH(4 )trapped in ice cores suggesting minimum contributions from old and strongly C-14-depleted permafrost OC. However, organic matter from permafrost can exhibit a continuum of C-14 ages (contemporaneous to >50 ky). Here, we investigate the large-scale permafrost remobilization at the Younger Dryas-Preboreal transition (ca. 11.6 ka BP) using the sedimentary record deposited at the Lena River paleo-outlet (Arctic Ocean) to reflect permafrost destabilization in this vast drainage basin. Terrestrial OC was isolated from sediments and characterized geochemically measuring delta C-13, Delta C-14, and lignin phenol molecular fossils. Results indicate massive remobilization of relatively young (about 2,600 years) permafrost OC from inland Siberia after abrupt warming triggered severe active layer deepening. Methane emissions from this young fraction of permafrost OC contributed to the deglacial CH4 rise. This study stresses that underestimating permafrost complexities may affect our comprehension of the deglacial permafrost OC-climate feedback and helps understand how modern permafrost systems may react to rapid warming events, including enhanced CH4 emissions that would amplify anthropogenic climate change.

Vehicle -emitted fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) has been associated with significant health outcomes and environmental risks. This study estimates the contribution of traffic -related exhaust emissions (TREE) to observed PM 2.5 using a novel factorization framework. Specifically, co -measured nitrogen oxides (NO x ) concentrations served as a marker of vehicle -tailpipe emissions and were integrated into the optimization of a Non -negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) analysis to guide the factor extraction. The novel TREE-NMF approach was applied to long-term (2012 - 2019) PM 2.5 observations from air quality monitoring (AQM) stations in two urban areas. The extracted TREE factor was evaluated against co -measured black carbon (BC) and PM 2.5 species to which the TREE-NMF optimization was blind. The contribution of the TREE factor to the observed PM 2.5 concentrations at an AQM station from the first location showed close agreement ( R 2 = 0 .79) with monitored BC data. In the second location, a comparison of the extracted TREE factor with measurements at a nearby Surface PARTiculate mAtter Network (SPARTAN) station revealed moderate correlations with PM 2.5 species commonly associated with fuel combustion, and a good linear regression fit with measured equivalent BC concentrations. The estimated concentrations of the TREE factor at the second location accounted for 7 - 11 % of the observed PM 2.5 in the AQM stations. Moreover, analysis of specific days known to be characterized by little traffic emissions suggested that approximately 60 - 78 % of the traffic -related PM 2.5 concentrations could be attributed to particulate traffic -exhaust emissions. The methodology applied in this study holds great potential in areas with limited monitoring of PM 2.5 speciation, in particular BC, and its results could be valuable for both future environmental health research, regional radiative forcing estimates, and promulgation of tailored regulations for traffic -related air pollution abatement.

PM2.5 impacts the atmospheric temperature structure through scattering or absorbing solar radiation, whose concentration and composition can affect the impact. This study calculated the effect of PM2.5 on the temperature structures in the urban centre and the suburbs of Nanjing, as well as their differences. The results show that the optical parameters, atmospheric heating rate, radiative forcing, and temperature are all impacted by the concentration and composition of PM2.5. The uneven distribution of PM2.5 influences the differences in those factors between the urban centre and suburbs. In spring, summer, autumn, and winter, surface temperatures in the urban centre were approximately 283 K, 285 K, 305 K, and 277 K, while those in the suburbs were approximately 282 K, 283 K, 304 K, and 274 K. The urban heat island intensity has been reduced by 0.1-0.4 K due to the presence of PM2.5 in Nanjing. Due to the black carbon component's warming effect on the top of the boundary layer, the impact of PM2.5 on the urban heat island intensity profile drops quickly at the 0.75-1.25 km. PM2.5 may mask the warm city problem and have a more complex impact on the urban climate.

Arctic rivers provide an integrated signature of the changing landscape and transmit signals of change to the ocean. Here, we use a decade of particulate organic matter (POM) compositional data to deconvolute multiple allochthonous and autochthonous pan-Arctic and watershed-specific sources. Constraints from carbon-to-nitrogen ratios (C:N), delta C-13, and Delta C-14 signatures reveal a large, hitherto overlooked contribution from aquatic biomass. Separation in Delta C-14 age is enhanced by splitting soil sources into shallow and deep pools (mean +/- SD: -228 +/- 211 vs. - 492 +/- 173%) rather than traditional active layer and permafrost pools (-300 +/- 236 vs. -441 +/- 215%) that do not represent permafrost-free Arctic regions. We estimate that 39 to 60% (5 to 95% credible interval) of the annual pan-Arctic POM flux (averaging 4,391 Gg/y particulate organic carbon from 2012 to 2019) comes from aquatic biomass. The remainder is sourced from yedoma, deep soils, shallow soils, petrogenic inputs, and fresh terrestrial production. Climate change-induced warming and increasing CO2 concentrations may enhance both soil destabilization and Arctic river aquatic biomass production, increasing fluxes of POM to the ocean. Younger, autochthonous, and older soil-derived POM likely have different destinies (preferential microbial uptake and processing vs. significant sediment burial, respectively). A small (similar to 7%) increase in aquatic biomass POM flux with warming would be equivalent to a similar to 30% increase in deep soil POM flux. There is a clear need to better quantify how the balance of endmember fluxes may shift with different ramifications for different endmembers and how this will impact the Arctic system.

Since China implemented the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan in 2013, the aerosol emis-sions in East Asia have been greatly reduced, while emissions in South Asia have continued to increase. This has led to a dipole pattern of aerosol emissions between South Asia and East Asia. Here, the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) responses to the dipole changes in aerosol emissions during 2013-17 are investigated using the atmosphere model of Com-munity Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2). We show that decreases in East Asian emissions alone lead to a positive aerosol effective radiative forcing (ERF) of 1.59 (+/- 0.97) W m-2 over central-eastern China (25 degrees-40 degrees N, 105 degrees-122.5 degrees E), along with a 0.09 (+/- 0.07)degrees C warming in summer during 2013-17. The warming intensified the land-sea thermal contrast and increased the rainfall by 0.32 (+/- 0.16) mm day-1. When considering both the emission reductions in East Asia and in-creases in South Asia, the ERF is increased to 3.39 (+/- 0.89) W m-2, along with an enhanced warming of 0.20 (+/- 0.08)degrees C over central-eastern China, while the rainfall insignificant decreased by 0.07 (+/- 0.16) mm day-1. It is due to the westward shift of the strengthened western Pacific subtropical high, linked to the increase in black carbon in South Asia. Based on multiple EASM indices, the reductions in aerosol emissions from East Asia alone increased the EASM strength by almost 5%. Considering the effect of the westward shift of WPSH, the dipole changes in emissions together increased the EASM by 5%-15% during 2013-17, revealing an important role of South Asian aerosols in changing the East Asian climate.

Aviation emissions are the only direct source of anthropogenic particulate pollution at high altitudes, which can form con-trails and contrail-induced clouds, with consequent effects upon global radiative forcing. In this study, we develop a pre-dictive model, called APMEP-CNN, for aviation non-volatile particulate matter (nvPM) emissions using a convolutional neural network (CNN) technique. The model is established with data sets from the newly published aviation emission databank and measurement results from several field studies on the ground and during cruise operation. The model also takes the influence of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) on nvPM emissions into account by considering fuel properties. This study demonstrates that the APMEP-CNN can predict nvPM emission index in mass (EIm) and number (EIn) for a number of high-bypass turbofan engines. The accuracy of predicting EIm and EIn at ground level is significantly improved (R2 = 0.96 and 0.96) compared to the published models. We verify the suitability and the applicability of the APMEP-CNN model for estimating nvPM emissions at cruise and burning SAFs and blend fuels, and find that our predictions for EIm are within & PLUSMN;36.4 % of the measurements at cruise and within & PLUSMN;33.0 % of the measurements burning SAFs in av-erage. In the worst case, the APMEP-CNN prediction is different by -69.2 % from the measurements at cruise for the JT3D-3B engine. Thus, the APMEP-CNN model can provide new data for establishing accurate emission inventories of global aviation and help assess the impact of aviation emissions on human health, environment and climate.Synopsis: The results of this paper provide accurate predictions of nvPM emissions from in-use aircraft engines, which im-pact airport local air quality and global radiative forcing.

Carbonaceous particles are an important radiative forcing agent in the atmosphere, with large temporal and spatial variations in their concentrations and compositions, especially in remote regions. This study reported the delta C-14 and delta C-13 of total carbon (TC) and water-insoluble particulate carbon (IPC) of the total suspended particles (TSP) and PM2.5 at a remote site of the eastern Tibetan Plateau (TP), a region that is influenced by heavy air pollution from Southwest China. The average organic carbon and elemental carbon concentrations of TSP samples in this study were 3.20 +/- 2.38 mu g m(-3) and 0.68 +/- 0.67 mu g m(-3), respectively, with low and high values in summer and winter, respectively. The fossil fuel contributions of TC in TSP and PM2.5 samples were 18.91 +/- 7.22% and 23.13 +/- 12.52%, respectively, both of which were far lower than that in Southwest China, indicating the importance of non-fossil contributions from local sources. The delta C-13 of TC in TSP samples of the study site was -27.06 +/- 0.96 parts per thousand, which is between the values of long-range transported sources (e.g., Southwest China) and local biomass combustion emissions. Therefore, despite the contribution from the long-range transport of particles, aerosols emitted from local biomass combustion also have an important influence on carbonaceous particles at the study site. The findings of this work can be applied to other remote sites on the eastern TP and should be considered in related research in the future.

The atmospheric circulation plays a critical role in the global transport and deposition of atmospheric pollutants such as mercury (Hg). Desert dust emissions contribute to nearly 60-95% of the global dust budget and thus, desert dust may facilitate atmospheric Hg transport and deposition to the downwind regions worldwide. The role of desert dust in biogeochemical cycling of Hg, however, has not been well recognized by the Hg research community. In this study, we measured the concentration of particulate bound Hg (HgP) in total suspended particulate (TSP) collected from China's largest desert, Taklimakan Desert, between 2013 and 2017. The results show that HgP concentrations over the Taklimakan Desert atmosphere are remarkably higher than those observed from background sites in China and are even comparable to those measured in most of the Chinese metropolitan cities. Moreover, HgP concentrations in the Taklimakan Desert exhibit a distinct seasonal pattern peaking during dust storm outbreak periods in spring and summer (March to August). A preliminary estimation demonstrates that export of total Hg associated with atmospheric dust from the Taklimakan Desert could be 59.7 +/- 60.3 (1SD) Mg yr(-1). The unexpectedly high HgP concentrations during duststorms, together with consistent seasonal pattern of Hg revealed from the snow/ice, clearly demonstrate that Asian desert dust could act as a significant carrier of atmospheric Hg to the cryosphere of Western China and even can have further global reach. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Aerosol behavior over the Himalayas plays an important role in the regional climate of South Asia. Previous studies at highaltitude observatories have provided evidence of the impact of long-range transport of pollutants from the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP). However, little information exists for the valley areas in the high Himalayas where significant local anthropogenic emissions can act as additional sources of short-living climate forcers and pollutants. The valley areas host most economic activities based on agriculture, forestry, and pilgrimage during every summer season. We report here first measurements at a valley site at similar to 2600 m a.s.l. on the trek to the Gangotri glacier (Gaumukh), in the Western Himalayas, where local infrastructures for atmospheric measurements are absent. The study comprised short-term measurement of aerosols, chemical characterization, and estimation of aerosol radiative forcing (ARF) during the winter and summer periods (2015-2016). The particulate matter mass concentrations were observed to be higher than the permissible limit during the summer campaigns. We obtained clear evidence of the impact of local anthropogenic sources: particulate nitrate is associated with coarse aerosol particles, the black carbon (BC) mass fraction appears undiluted with respect tomeasurements performed in the lower Himalayas, and inwinter, both BC and sulfate concentrations in the valley site are well above the background levels reported from literature studies for mountain peaks. Finally, high concentrations of trace metals such as copper point to anthropogenic activities, including combustion and agriculture. While most studies in the Himalayas have addressed pollution in the high Himalayas in terms of transport from IGP, our study provides clear evidence that local sources cannot be overlooked over the high-altitude Himalayas. The estimated direct clear-sky ARF was estimated to be in the range of -0.1 to +1.6Wm(-2), with significant heating in the atmosphere over the highaltitude Himalayan study site. These results indicate the need to establish systematic aerosol monitoring activities in the high Himalayan valleys.