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Atmosphere
Special Issues
Emission Inventories and Modeling of Air Pollution
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Emission Inventories and Modeling of Air Pollution

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Atmospheric Techniques, Instruments, and Modeling".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 August 2026 | Viewed by 1754

Special Issue Editors

Dr. René Parra

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Science and Engineering, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Quito 170901, Ecuador
Interests: air emission inventories; air pollution; modeling of air quality; modeling of volcanic ash dispersion; ultraviolet radiation
Prof. Dr. Xiaohong Xu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada
Interests: air quality monitoring; air quality modeling; source apportionment; emission control; exposure and risk assessment

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Air pollution is a result of complex interactions between atmospheric emissions and weather. Emission inventories, which describe the configuration of pollutants emitted from different sources, are indispensable for gaining insights into policies, plans, and projects to control air pollution; they are used as inputs for chemical transport models to simulate the dispersion and photochemical reactions of pollutants in the atmosphere. Apart from emission inventories, the modeled values are affected by selected parameters, schemes, and even spatial resolution. The computed results must agree with atmospheric and air quality records to test the validity of emission inventories and atmospheric modeling. As such, emission inventories are a powerful tool for air quality management that can allow us to understand the behavior of contaminants in the atmosphere. This Special Issue will focus on, but is not limited to, contributions related to the following topics:

  • Developing atmospheric emission inventories;
  • Assessment of emission inventories using air pollution modeling;
  • Evaluation of models for both air quality and atmospheric variables;
  • Influence of parameters, schemes, spatial resolution, and initial conditions on modeling air pollution;
  • Modeling of future scenarios due to changes in the emission inventory.

Dr. René Parra
Prof. Dr. Xiaohong Xu
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

  • air pollution modeling
  • modeling performance
  • future scenarios for air pollution

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 1747 KB  
Article
Nitrogen Oxide Emissions as a Proxy for Simplifying Large-Scale Emission Inventories and Tracking Decarbonization
by Banyan Lehman and Bill Van Heyst
Atmosphere 2026, 17(3), 320; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos17030320 - 20 Mar 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 409
Abstract
Decarbonizing energy production is critical to slowing the effects of climate change and furthering global sustainability. Progress is often gauged via carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions; however, sources of CO2 vary beyond combustion, presenting a significant challenge to accurate tracking due [...] Read more.
Decarbonizing energy production is critical to slowing the effects of climate change and furthering global sustainability. Progress is often gauged via carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions; however, sources of CO2 vary beyond combustion, presenting a significant challenge to accurate tracking due to these various sources and sinks and the ubiquitous nature of CO2 in the atmosphere. Nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions have previously been proposed as a surrogate for tracking sustainability, as they are primarily released from combustion processes. Facility-level data from Canada’s National Pollutant Release Inventory and Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program over a six-year period is used to assess the correlation between NOX and CO2 emissions from integrated facilities across Canada. Combustion-related CO2 emissions accounting for approximately 94% of Canadian industrial emissions are examined, targeting eleven industries which together encompass over 90% of combustion emissions. Multiple linear regressions (MLRs) on each industry correlating NOX, CO2, and the inventory methods used (i.e., emission factors (EFs), source monitoring, mass balance, engineering estimates, and speciation) show R2 values ranging from 0.81 to 0.96 for all but one industry. Several industries indicate that the methods used to calculate emissions influence the correlation of CO2 to NOX, highlighting issues in the current inventory techniques. The NOX-to-CO2 ratios calculated for the integrated facilities are similar to the ratios of the published main process-level EFs for NOX to CO2 (where available). These MLR models on NOX could be used to predict CO2 emissions with relative ease and accuracy in other jurisdictions, thereby simplifying large-scale emission inventory compilation while tracking sustainability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emission Inventories and Modeling of Air Pollution)
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21 pages, 10371 KB  
Article
Constrained Estimates of Anthropogenic NOx Emissions in China (2014–2021) from Surface Observations
by Yang Shen, Shuzhuang Feng, Zihan Yang, Chenchen Peng, Guoen Wei and Yuanyuan Yang
Atmosphere 2026, 17(1), 51; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos17010051 - 31 Dec 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 729
Abstract
China’s rapid urbanization has precipitated severe atmospheric pollution, drawing sustained scientific and policy attention. Although nationwide implementations of emission control measures have achieved measurable reductions in ambient NO2 concentrations, fundamental uncertainties persist in quantifying anthropogenic NOx emission and their interannual variability. [...] Read more.
China’s rapid urbanization has precipitated severe atmospheric pollution, drawing sustained scientific and policy attention. Although nationwide implementations of emission control measures have achieved measurable reductions in ambient NO2 concentrations, fundamental uncertainties persist in quantifying anthropogenic NOx emission and their interannual variability. In this study, NOx emissions over China are inferred using the Regional Air Pollutant Assimilation System (RAPAS) combined with ground-based hourly NO2 observations, and a detailed analysis of the spatiotemporal variation patterns of NOx emissions is also provided. Nationally, most sites display declining NO2 concentrations during 2014–2021, with steeper reduction trends in winter, particularly in pollution hotspots. The RAPAS-optimized NOx emission estimates demonstrate superior performance relative to prior inventories, with site-averaged biases, root mean square errors, and correlation coefficients improved substantially across all geographic regions in China. The trajectories of changes in NOx emissions exhibit marked regional disparities: South and Northeast China experienced more than 8.0% emission growth during 2014–2017, while NOx emissions in northwest and southwest China increased by 35% and 26%, significantly higher than those in East China. The reductions accelerated significantly post 2018, particularly in central and eastern regions (more than −20%). The interannual variation in NOx emissions in the five national urban agglomerations shows a similar trend of first rising and then decreasing. The NOx emissions of Anhui, Yunnan, Shanxi, Gansu and Xinjiang provinces increased significantly from 2014 to 2017, while the emissions of Shandong and Zhejiang decreased at a relatively high rate (more than 80 Gg per year). These findings are helpful to provide a more comprehensive understanding of current NOx pollution and provide scientific basis for policymakers to propose effective strategies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emission Inventories and Modeling of Air Pollution)
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