A new paper entitled “Diverse aerosol effects revealed during wildfire and dust storm events in Ukraine in April 2020” was published in Atmospheric Pollution Research journal that is the contribution of Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute (Kyiv, Ukraine), Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research – University of Helsinki (Helsinki, Finland) and Niels Bohr Institute – University of Copenhagen (Copenhagen, Denmark).

This paper explores the diversity of aerosol effects observed in Ukraine during the April 2020 pollution event caused by a dust storm and wildfires. Applying the Environment – HIgh-Resolution Limited Area Model (Enviro-HIRLAM) with a 1.5 km horizontal resolution, it was shown that the impact of aerosol particles was depended on aerosol chemical composition interacting with the meteorological processes acting on synoptic and mesoscales. The main findings of the study highlights: (1) reduced incoming short-wave radiation with lower values in atmospheric fronts; (2) a localized warming and drying behind a warm front, with opposite effects occurring ahead of it during periods of elevated organic and black carbon concentrations; (3) higher temperatures in the frontal areas experiencing dynamical warming; (4) a local increase in turbulent kinetic energy observed after stationary cold fronts, likely due to the mechanical contribution of wind shear, accompanied by a consequent increase in specific humidity. This paper emphasizes the importance of analyzing aerosol impacts under various synoptic conditions and aerosol mixing ratios to enhance our understanding of aerosol-meteorology interactions and improving model parameterizations.

This study received funding under the programme HPC-Europa3 (INFRAIA-2016-1-730897), obtained while conducting the HPC project “Integrated modelling for assessment of potential pollution regional atmospheric transport as result of accidental wildfires” (2020–2022, https://www.hpc-europa.org), from Horizon Europe programme – under Grant Agreement No 101137680 via project CERTAINTY (Cloud-aERosol inTeractions & their impActs IN The earth sYstem, https://certainty-aci.eu), under Grant Agreement No 10103624 via project RI-URBANS (Research Infrastructures Services Reinforcing Air Quality Monitoring Capacities in European Urban & Industrial AreaS, https://riurbans.eu), and under Grant Agreement No 101056783 via project FOCI (Non-CO₂ Forcers And Their Climate, Weather, Air Quality And Health Impacts, https://www.project-foci.eu), and additional support from Research Council of Finland (RCoF) through ACCC (Atmosphere and Climate Competence Center https://www.acccflagship.fi) via RCoF grants No 337549, 357902, 359340) and University of Helsinki via ACTRIS-HY. The Center for Science Computing (CSC; https://csc.fi; Helsinki, Finland) is acknowledged for computational resources for the model simulations.

Note: the free access to the paper is available until 3 March 2026 via the following link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S130910422600022X?dgcid=author

Reference: Savenets, M., Mahura, A., Nuterman, R., Kulmala, M., & Petäjä, T. (2026). Diverse aerosol effects revealed during wildfire and dust storm events in Ukraine in April 2020. Atmospheric Pollution Research, 102906. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apr.2026.102906