In oligotrophic regions, such as the Mediterranean Sea, atmospheric deposition has the potential to stimulate heterotrophic prokaryote growth and production in surface waters, especially during the summer stratification period. Previous studies focused on the role of leaching nutrients from mineral particles of Saharan (S) origin, and were restricted to single locations at given times of the ye...

BACKGROUND The loading of atmospheric particulate matter (aerosol) in the eastern Himalaya is mainly regulated by the locally generated anthropogenic aerosols from the biomass burning and by the aerosols transported from the distance sources. These different types of aerosol loading not only affect the aerosol chemistry but also produce consequent signature on the radiative properties of aeroso...

background: workers in wastewater treatment plants are exposed to a wide range of chemicals as well as biological contaminants. objective: to ascertain whether exposure to bio-aerosols under the normal working conditions in wastewater treatment plants is associated with any significant changes in the prevalence of respiratory symptoms and lung function capacities. methods: 198 employees of wast...

Tropospheric aerosols affect the radiative forcing of Earth's climate, but their variable concentrations complicate an understanding of their global influence. Model-based estimates of aerosol distributions helped reveal spatial patterns indicative of the presence of tropospheric aerosols in the satellite-observed clear-sky solar radiation budget over the world's oceans. The results show that, ...

The link between the African Monsoon systems and aerosol loading in Africa is studied using multi-year satellite observations of UV-absorbing aerosols and rain gauge measurements. The main aerosol types occurring over Africa are desert dust and biomass burning aerosols, which are UV-absorbing. The abundance of these aerosols over Africa is characterised in this paper using residues and Absorbin...

Satellite data and models suggest that oceanic productivity is reduced in response to less nutrient supply under warming. In contrast, anthropogenic aerosols provide nutrients and exert a fertilizing effect, but its contribution to evolution of oceanic productivity is unknown. We simulate the response of oceanic biogeochemistry to anthropogenic aerosols deposition under varying climate from 185...

The Global Imager (GLI) onboard ADEOS-2 is the first medium-resolution Earth observation satellite sensor that is able to combine measurements from the near-UV to the IR wavelength region. This work investigates a newly available channel in the near-UV to retrieve the optical thickness and single-scattering albedo of aerosols. Due to the low reflectivity of most surfaces in the near-UV, this wa...

Background Inhalation of aerosols of surface active substances is a known risk factor for development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). A number of small case series are reported with exposure for aerosols from spraycans with textile or leather protecting agents. We report a series of cases with respiratory symptoms in a group of 39 persons exposed to a floor-sealing product, Anti ...

Aerosols Aerosols are fine solid or liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere, where they reside typically for days to weeks before settling to the ground or being washed out by rain or snow. They arise both from natural sources (such as desert dust, sea spray and volcanic eruptions) and from human activities involving burning of fossil fuels and vegetation. Visible forms of atmospheric aero...

An aerosol generation, calibration, and research facility has been developed with the major purpose of evaluating aerosol instrumentation, including quality assurance testing, intercomparison, performance evaluation, and calibration of aerosol sizing, bulk, and speciated mass-measuring instruments. The aerosol facility also provides excellent opportunities for basic aerosol research. Polydisper...