The DOI matches its Crossref record; 8 of the 8 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Potential impacts of atmospheric microplastics and nanoplastics on cloud formation processes
Open accessAbstract
The presence of microplastics and nanoplastics (MnPs) in the atmosphere and their transport on a global scale has previously been demonstrated. However, little is known about their environmental impacts in the atmosphere. MnPs could act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) or ice-nucleating particles (INPs), affecting cloud formation processes. In sufficient quantities, they could change the cloud albedo, precipitation and lifetime, collectively impacting the Earth’s radiation balance and climate. In this Perspective, we evaluate the potential impact of MnPs on cloud formation by assessing their ability to act as CCN or INPs. Based on an analysis of their physicochemical properties, we propose that MnPs can act as INPs and potentially as CCN after environmental aging processes such as photochemical weathering and the sorption of macromolecules or trace soluble species onto the particle surface. The actual climate impact(s) of MnPs depend on their abundance relative to other aerosols. The concentration of MnPs in the atmosphere is currently low, so they are unlikely to make a substantial contribution to radiative forcing in regions exposed to other aerosols, either from natural sources or anthropogenic pollution. Nevertheless, MnPs will potentially cause non-negligible perturbations in unpolluted remote or marine clouds and generate local climate impacts, particularly in view of an increase in the release of MnPs to the environment in the future. Further measurements, coupled with better characterization of the physiochemical properties of MnPs, will enable a more accurate assessment of the climate impacts of MnPs acting as INPs and CCN. Microplastics and nanoplastics may affect cloud formation processes by acting as ice-nucleating particles and cloud condensation nuclei.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Rethinking microplastics as a diverse contaminant suite
Rochman, C. M., Brookson, C., Bikker, J., Djuric, N., Earn, A., Bucci, K., Athey, S., Huntington, A., McIlwraith, H., Munno, K., et al. (2019) · Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry · doi:10.1002/etc.4371 · Cited by 1,258
Hoose, C., & Möhler, O. (2012) · Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics · doi:10.5194/acp-12-9817-2012 · Cited by 1,227
Atmospheric microplastic deposition in an urban environment and an evaluation of transport
Wright, S. L., Ulke, J., Font, A., Chan, K. L. A., & Kelly, F. J. (2020) · Environment International · doi:10.1016/j.envint.2019.105411 · Cited by 1,222
Nanoplastics are neither microplastics nor engineered nanoparticles
Gigault, J., El Hadri, H., Nguyen, B., Grassl, B., Rowenczyk, L., Tufenkji, N., Feng, S., & Wiesner, M. (2021) · Nature Nanotechnology · doi:10.1038/s41565-021-00886-4 · Cited by 954
Abbasi, S., Keshavarzi, B., Moore, F., Turner, A., Kelly, F. J., Dominguez, A. O., & Jaafarzadeh, N. (2019) · Environmental Pollution · doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2018.10.039 · Cited by 770
Direct radiative effects of airborne microplastics
Revell, L. E., Kuma, P., Le Ru, E. C., Somerville, W. R. C., & Gaw, S. (2021) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03864-x · Cited by 372
Materić, D., Kasper-Giebl, A., Kau, D., Anten, M., Greilinger, M., Ludewig, E., van Sebille, E., Röckmann, T., & Holzinger, R. (2020) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/acs.est.9b07540 · Cited by 363
Colloidal meteorological processes in the formation of precipitation
Findeisen, W., Volken, E., Giesche, A. M., & Brönnimann, S. (2015) · Meteorologische Zeitschrift · doi:10.1127/metz/2015/0675 · Cited by 52
Cited by
Long-range atmospheric transport of microplastics across the southern hemisphere
Chen, Q., Shi, G., Revell, L. E., Zhang, J., Zuo, C., Wang, D., Le Ru, E. C., Wu, G., & Mitrano, D. M. (2023) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-023-43695-0 · Cited by 178
Self-citationShape Matters: Long-Range Transport of Microplastic Fibers in the Atmosphere
Tatsii, D., Bucci, S., Bhowmick, T., Guettler, J., Bakels, L., Bagheri, G., & Stohl, A. (2024) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/acs.est.3c08209 · Cited by 181
Wang, Y., Okochi, H., Tani, Y., Hayami, H., Minami, Y., Katsumi, N., Takeuchi, M., Sorimachi, A., Fujii, Y., Kajino, M., et al. (2023) · Environmental Chemistry Letters · doi:10.1007/s10311-023-01626-x · Cited by 110
Jansen, M. A. K., Andrady, A. L., Bornman, J. F., Aucamp, P. J., Bais, A. F., Banaszak, A. T., Barnes, P. W., Bernhard, G. H., Bruckman, L. S., Busquets, R., et al. (2024) · Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences · doi:10.1007/s43630-024-00552-3 · Cited by 83
Characterization of Microplastics in Clouds over Eastern China
Xu, X., Li, T., Zhen, J., Jiang, Y., Nie, X., Wang, Y., Yuan, X.-Z., Mao, H., Wang, X., Xue, L., et al. (2024) · Environmental Science & Technology Letters · doi:10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00729 · Cited by 43
Metadata
- Authors
- Aeschlimann, M., Li, G., Kanji, Z. A., & Mitrano, D. M.
- Venue
- Nature Geoscience
- Published
- 2022-11-14
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 967-975
- ISSN
- 1752-0894 (ISSN-L)
- 1752-0908
- OpenAlex
- W4308994256
- Cited by
- 174
- References
- 8
- FWCI
- 13.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Potential impacts of atmospheric microplastics and nanoplastics on cloud formation processes. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1038/s41561-022-01051-9
- The paper
- Aeschlimann, M., Li, G., Kanji, Z. A., & Mitrano, D. M. (2022). Potential impacts of atmospheric microplastics and nanoplastics on cloud formation processes. Nature Geoscience. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-01051-9
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
