Aerosol Composition

The Aerosol composition research group investigates sources, composition and properties of atmospheric aerosol particles by employing advanced instrumentation for aerosol measurements. The research covers the whole chain, from particle sources (e.g. vehicles, biomass combustion, power plants) to atmospheric aging processes and particles observed in the atmosphere. The wide variety of employed state-of-the-art aerosol instrumentation enables the chemical and physical characterization of particles in real time and from filter samples. The group has tight national and international collaborations with many research institutes and companies.

Research areas

Aerosol composition group topics

Current and future research activities

  • Secondary emissions from different traffic sectors (PAREMPI-project)

  • Non-exhaust emissions in electrifying mining and urban environment (NEX-EL-project)

  • Black and brown carbon in atmosphere and cryosphere (BBrCaC-project)

  • Sources and composition of nano- and microplastics (ACINMUA-project)

  • Development of a black carbon (BC) footprint concept to be a uniform metric for the BC emissions, concentrations and effects (BC footprint project);

  • Transport derived ultrafine particle (UFP) composition, expose and toxicity characterization (TUBE project);

  • Evaluation of the contribution of shipping emissions to inland pollution and assessment of their impacts on air quality under different regulatory enforcement scenarios (SCIPPER project);

  • Continuous measurements of carbonaceous particulate matter at urban and regional background stations in Finland;

  • Long-term chemical composition and source apportionment of submicron particles in Helsinki metropolitan area;