Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 March 2020.

Dear Colleagues,

I invite you to contribute to this Special Issue of Atmosphere focused on the interaction of air pollutants with snow. Air pollution has been shown to cause numerous adverse environmental and health effects. Recent studies have found links not only with the cardiovascular and pulmonary disease, but also neurological disorders and carcinogenesis.

Between the time when air pollutants are released and when exposure occurs, air pollutants in gaseous and particulate forms can undergo various physical and chemical transformations. A large body of research has been dedicated to investigating these transformations. Studies have focused on the various aspects of the question: from gas-phase atmospheric chemistry to aerosol dynamics. The interaction of air pollutants with environmental surfaces such as vegetation, soil, exposed rock, water surfaces, and snow is an important determiner of the fate of air pollutants. These interactions lead to the temporary or permanent removal of air pollutants from the atmosphere, the introduction of air pollutants, and the altering of the chemical nature and distribution of air pollutants across the gas and particulate phases within a range of aerosol particle sizes.

These interactions with environmental surfaces may change the abundance and distribution of air pollutants significantly. These changes may, in turn, alter environmental and health effects caused by the resulting mix of air pollutants in ways that are still poorly understood.

Among the various types of environmental surfaces, snow and ice crystal surfaces have historically attracted comparatively less research attention, in part due to the difficulties of conducting both laboratory and field studies at subfreezing temperatures. Nevertheless, during the last few years, snow and ice research intensified thanks to the newly developed experimental and field approaches, and the rapidly increasing research activity in the seasonally or permanently colder regions of the world, including Canada, China, and Scandinavia. It is now clear that snow plays an important role in the fate of air pollutants: from exhaust-derived contaminants to microplastics.

This Special Issue focuses on all aspects of the interaction of air pollution with snow. We invite you to consider submitting articles reporting on field- and laboratory-based observational and modeling studies, environmental monitoring, exposure, and epidemiological research, and work that is either regionally or globally relevant. Other aspects of air pollution interaction with snow not listed above are also welcome.

Dr. Yevgen Nazarenko
Guest Editor