The depiction of fine particles of different sizes in climate models should be fine-tuned

Emissions of fine particles have decreased in Europe as a result of air quality measures. The study examined how well climate models succeed in describing this change.

Based on the comparison, the models were mainly able to repeat the observed changes in particle size distributions, but the modelled decrease was smaller than in the observations.

Further information:

Group leader Harri Kokkola, Finnish Meteorological Institute, tel. +358 29 539 2148, harri.kokkola@fmi.fi

Senior Scientist Tero Mielonen, Finnish Meteorological Institute, tel. 050 401 8738, tero.mielonen@fmi.fi

Scientific article available on Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

Reference:

Leinonen, V., Kokkola, H., Yli-Juuti, T., Mielonen, T., Kühn, T., Nieminen, T., Heikkinen, S., Miinalainen, T., Bergman, T., Carslaw, K., Decesari, S., Fiebig, M., Hussein, T., Kivekäs, N., Krejci, R., Kulmala, M., Leskinen, A., Massling, A., Mihalopoulos, N., Mulcahy, J. P., Noe, S. M., van Noije, T., O'Connor, F. M., O'Dowd, C., Olivie, D., Pernov, J. B., Petäjä, T., Seland, Ø., Schulz, M., Scott, C. E., Skov, H., Swietlicki, E., Tuch, T., Wiedensohler, A., Virtanen, A., and Mikkonen, S.: Comparison of particle number size distribution trends in ground measurements and climate models, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12873–12905, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12873-2022