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Atmosphere
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Effects of Natural and Anthropogenic Factors on Climate and Environment...
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Effects of Natural and Anthropogenic Factors on Climate and Environment (3rd Edition)

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Air Quality".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 29 May 2026 | Viewed by 1097

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Bin Chen

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Guest Editor
Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
Interests: atmospheric physics; atmospheric chemistry; atmospheric environment; atmospheric sounding; climate and environment effects
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Ning Tang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Nature and Environmental Technology, Kanazawa University, Ishikawa, Kanazawa 920-1192, Kakumamachi, Japan
Interests: air pollution; public health; PM 2.5; environmental science and technology; analytical chemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Bushra Khalid

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
China-Pakistan Joint Research Center on Earth Sciences, CAS-HEC, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan
Interests: sustainable development; green economy; environmental resource management; environmental economics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is a follow-up of "Effects of Natural and Anthropogenic Factors on Climate and Environment (2nd Edition)" (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/atmosphere/special_issues/Y5NGN6DA84), published in Atmosphere in 2024.

This Special Issue will focus on the natural and anthropogenic activities that affect the climate and environment of various regions around the world. For example, emissions from a volcanic eruption may impact the climate and environment of distant locations via aerosols that are transported by the Earth’s general atmospheric circulation; the dust and aerosols from a desert may reach other areas and cause health impacts; and emissions from burning fossil fuels may affect surrounding regions. Pollution derived from urban areas, brick kilns and other activities based in rural areas, and coastal/marine sectors can spread, negatively impacting the climate and environment. Moreover, climate change due to natural and anthropogenic activities may induce changes in the environment, thus creating conditions that are conducive to the growth and development of different water- and vector-borne diseases, such as dengue, chikungunya, etc. Carbon emissions are associated with the greenhouse effect and have a substantial effect on the climate and environment. Climate change can also affect temperature, precipitation, and wind circulation, thereby leading to shifts in biodiversity. Atmospheric and water thermal extremes may give rise to storms and cyclones, causing major disasters. This Special Issue adopts a broader view and welcomes articles that introduce new methods in environmental and climate modeling and simulation and numerical predictions to examine, for example, thermal extremes, demonstrating the impacts of natural and anthropogenic activities on the climate and environment. We also encourage the submission of articles that use innovative approaches and present new solutions to problems that arise from natural and anthropogenic activities.

Dr. Bin Chen
Prof. Dr. Ning Tang
Dr. Bushra Khalid
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • effect of anthropogenic emissions on climate and environment
  • effect of natural activities/emissions on climate and environment
  • carbon emission and carbon neutrality
  • changes in general circulation and its impacts on the climate and environment
  • urban climate and environment
  • rural climate and environment
  • coastal and marine climate and environment
  • mountainous climate and environment
  • numerical and statistical modeling
  • thermal extremes and its impact on the climate and environment
  • sea level rise
  • water extremes

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 12869 KB  
Article
Global Atmospheric Pollution During the Pandemic Period (COVID-19)
by Débora Souza Alvim, Cássio Aurélio Suski, Dirceu Luís Herdies, Caio Fernando Fontana, Eliza Miranda de Toledo, Bushra Khalid, Gabriel Oyerinde, Andre Luiz dos Reis, Simone Marilene Sievert da Costa Coelho, Monica Tais Siqueira D’Amelio Felippe and Mauricio Lamano
Atmosphere 2026, 17(1), 89; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos17010089 - 15 Jan 2026
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Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic led to an unprecedented slowdown in global economic and transportation activities, offering a unique opportunity to assess the relationship between human activity and atmospheric pollution. This study analyzes global variations in major air pollutants and meteorological conditions during the pandemic [...] Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to an unprecedented slowdown in global economic and transportation activities, offering a unique opportunity to assess the relationship between human activity and atmospheric pollution. This study analyzes global variations in major air pollutants and meteorological conditions during the pandemic period using multi-satellite and reanalysis datasets. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) data were obtained from the OMI sensor aboard NASA’s Aura satellite, while carbon monoxide (CO) observations were taken from the MOPITT instrument on Terra. Reanalysis products from MERRA-2 were used to assess CO, sulfur dioxide (SO2), black carbon (BC), organic carbon (OC), and key meteorological variables, including temperature, precipitation, evaporation, wind speed, and direction. Average concentrations of pollutants for April, May, and June 2020, representing the lockdown phase, were compared with the average values of the same months during 2017–2019, representing pre-pandemic conditions. The difference between these multi-year means was used to quantify spatial changes in pollutant levels. Results reveal widespread reductions in NO2, CO, SO2, and BC concentrations across major industrial and urban regions worldwide, consistent with decreased anthropogenic activity during lockdowns. Meteorological analysis indicates that the observed reductions were not primarily driven by short-term weather variability, confirming that the declines are largely attributable to reduced emissions. Unlike most previous studies, which examined local or regional air-quality changes, this work provides a consistent global-scale assessment using harmonized multi-sensor datasets and uniform temporal baselines. These findings highlight the strong influence of human activities on atmospheric composition and demonstrate how large-scale behavioral and economic shifts can rapidly alter air quality on a global scale. The results also provide valuable baseline information for understanding emission–climate interactions and for guiding post-pandemic strategies aimed at sustainable air-quality management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Natural and Anthropogenic Factors on Climate and Environment (3rd Edition))
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20 pages, 11111 KB  
Article
Long-Term Trends and Seasonally Resolved Drivers of Surface Albedo Across China Using GTWR
by Jiqiang Niu, Ziming Wang, Hao Lin, Hongrui Li, Zijian Liu, Mengyang Li, Xiaodong Deng, Bohan Wang, Tong Wu and Junkuan Zhu
Atmosphere 2025, 16(11), 1287; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos16111287 - 12 Nov 2025
Viewed by 588
Abstract
Amid accelerating global warming, surface albedo is a key indicator and regulator of how Earth’s surface reflects solar radiation, directly affecting the planetary radiation balance and climate. In this paper, we combined MODIS shortwave albedo (MCD43A3, 500 m), MODIS NDVI (MOD13A3, 1 km; [...] Read more.
Amid accelerating global warming, surface albedo is a key indicator and regulator of how Earth’s surface reflects solar radiation, directly affecting the planetary radiation balance and climate. In this paper, we combined MODIS shortwave albedo (MCD43A3, 500 m), MODIS NDVI (MOD13A3, 1 km; NDVI = normalized difference vegetation index) and 1-km gridded meteorological data to analyze the spatiotemporal variations of surface albedo across China during 2001–2020 at a gridded scale. Temporal trends were quantified with the Theil–Sen slope and the Mann–Kendall test, and the seasonal contributions of NDVI, air temperature, and precipitation were assessed with a geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model. China’s mean annual shortwave albedo was 0.186 and showed a significant decline. Attribution indicates NDVI is the dominant driver (~48% of total change), followed by temperature (~27%) and precipitation (~25%). Seasonally, NDVI explains ~43.94–52.02% of the variation, ~26.81–28.07% of the temperature, and ~21.17–28.57% of the precipitation. Clear spatial patterns emerge. In high-latitude and high-elevation snow-dominated regions, albedo tends to decrease with warmer conditions and increase with greater precipitation. In much of eastern China, albedo is generally positively associated with temperature and negatively with precipitation. NDVI—reflecting vegetation greenness and canopy structure—captures the effects of vegetation greening, canopy densification, and land-cover change that reduce surface reflectivity by enhancing shortwave absorption. Temperature and precipitation affect albedo primarily by regulating vegetation growth. This study goes beyond correlation mapping by combining robust trend detection (Theil–Sen + MK) with GTWR to resolve seasonally varying, non-stationary controls on albedo at 1-km over 20 years. By explicitly separating snow-covered and snow-free conditions, we quantify how NDVI, temperature, and precipitation contributions shift across climate zones and seasons, providing a reproducible, national-scale attribution that can inform ecosystem restoration and land-surface radiative management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Natural and Anthropogenic Factors on Climate and Environment (3rd Edition))
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