Publications by Athanasios Nenes

Inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 at acidic pH is driven by partial unfolding of spike

Tamar Kohn, Aline Laetitia Schaub, Athanasios Nenes, Shannon Christa David

SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, is predominantly transmitted by respiratory aerosol and contaminated surfaces. Recent studies demonstrated that aerosols can become acidic, and acidification has been proposed as decontamination method. Here, we ...

Springer Science and Business Media LLC2025

Atmospheric reactive nitrogen and its dry deposition regimes under anthropogenic influence: Insights from intensive and long-term monitoring in Switzerland

Athanasios Nenes, Kalliopi Violaki, Ghislain Gilles Jean-Michel Motos, Andrea Baccarini

Excessive nitrogen deposition from anthropogenic activities poses significant challenges to ecosystems and air quality.1 The atmospheric deposition of ammonium and nitrate plays a critical role in regulating ecosystem productivity and driving particulate m ...

2025

Effects of wind-blown dust emissions on size-resolved aerosol acidity over the US

Athanasios Nenes

Wind-blown dust can affect the acidity of all particles, impacting a series of related chemical processes. In this work, we use a wind-blown dust emissions model along with the hybrid version of aerosol dynamics in the PMCAMx chemical transport model to qu ...

Elsevier2025

Airborne Microorganisms at Hellenic Atmospheric Aerosol and Climate Change Station in Helmos Mountain (Greece)

Athanasios Nenes

Cultural-based methods of bacteria and fungi and molecular identification of bacteria were combined with parallel continuous measurements of aerosol chemical composition, number size distribution, ice-nucleating concentration, and fluorescent particle size ...

American Chemical Society (ACS)2025

On the drivers of ice nucleating particle diurnal variability in Eastern Mediterranean clouds

Athanasios Nenes, Romanos Foskinis, Kunfeng Gao

We report the drivers of spatiotemporal variability of ice nucleating particles (INPs) for mixed-phase orographic clouds (~−25 °C) in the Eastern Mediterranean. In the planetary boundary layer, pronounced INP diurnal periodicity is observed, which is mainl ...

Springer Science and Business Media LLC2025

Comparative characterization of bronchial and nasal mucus reveals key determinants of influenza A virus inhibition

Tamar Kohn, Céline Terrettaz, Aline Laetitia Schaub, Athanasios Nenes, Kalliopi Violaki, Ghislain Gilles Jean-Michel Motos, Walter Hugentobler

Differentiated primary human respiratory epithelial cells grown at air-liquid interface have become a widely used cell culture model of the human conducting airways. These cultures contain secretory cells such as goblet and club cells, which produce and se ...

American Society for Microbiology2025

Assessing the Global Contribution of Marine Aerosols, Terrestrial Bioaerosols, and Desert Dust to Ice-nucleating Particle Concentrations

Athanasios Nenes

Aerosol-cloud interactions, particularly ice processes in mixed-phase clouds (MPCs), remain a key source of uncertainty in climate change assessments. This study introduces state-of-the-art laboratory-based parameterizations into a global chemistry-transpo ...

COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH2025

Significant contributions of fresh and aged biomass burning organic aerosol from residential burning in a wintertime urban environment

Athanasios Nenes

The biomass burning organic aerosol (BBOA) was quantified and characterized during a period of elevated emissions from residential heating at a Mediterranean urban area. Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) of the measurements from a high-resolution time-of ...

Elsevier2025

Impact of mineral dust on the global nitrate aerosol direct and indirect radiative effect

Athanasios Nenes

Nitrate (NO3-) aerosol is projected to increase dramatically in the coming decades and may become the dominant inorganic particle species. This is due to the continued strong decrease in SO2 emissions, which is not accompanied by a corresponding decrease i ...

Copernicus GmbH2025

Aerosol-Driven Parameterization of Ice Nucleation and Secondary Ice Processes in EC-Earth3: Evaluation and Climate Impacts

Athanasios Nenes

Clouds remain a major source of uncertainty in climate projections, particularly due to complexities in aerosol-cloud interactions. To improve the representation of mixed-phase clouds in EC-Earth3, the model's heterogeneous ice nucleation scheme has been u ...

2025

Solid-state 31P NMR reveals the biological organophosphorus compounds as the dominant phosphorus species in Saharan dust aerosols

Pierre Rossi, Claudia Esther Avalos, Athanasios Nenes, Kalliopi Violaki, Christos Panagiotopoulos

Phosphorus is a critical nutrient affecting primary productivity across all ecosystems. Many regions worldwide are limited or co-limited by phosphorus availability, which can be alleviated through atmospheric deposition. Dust is known to be a key external ...

2025

The recent and future PM2.5-related health burden in China apportioned by emission source

Athanasios Nenes

This study estimated PM 2.5 (atmospheric fine particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤2.5 µg) concentrations and the health burden in mainland China from 2010 to 2049 under two scenarios: Current Legistaions and Maximum Technical Feasible Reductions. ...

Springer Science and Business Media LLC2025

From Molecules to Droplets: The Fog and Aerosol Interaction Research Italy (FAIRARI) 2021/22 Campaign

Athanasios Nenes

The Italian Po Valley is one of the most polluted regions in Europe. During winter, meteorological conditions favor long and dense fogs, which strongly affect visibility and human health. In spring, the frequency of nighttime fogs reduces while daytime new ...

2025

An interlaboratory comparison to quantify oxidative potential measurement in aerosol particles: challenges and recommendations for harmonisation

Athanasios Nenes

This paper presents the findings from a collaborative interlaboratory comparison exercise designed to assess oxidative potential (OP) measurements conducted by 20 laboratories worldwide. This study represents an innovative effort as the first exercise spec ...

COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH2025

Phosphorus speciation in environmental organic matter using 31P-NMR. Recent advances in the characterization of atmospheric organic matter

Athanasios Nenes, Kalliopi Violaki, Christos Panagiotopoulos

Phosphorus (P) is a vital element for all living organisms and is one of the most essential nutrients in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. As a fundamental component of DNA and RNA, it plays a structural role in cell membranes (e.g., as part of phos ...

2025

A causal intercomparison framework unravels precipitation drivers in Global Storm-Resolving Models

Athanasios Nenes

Correctly representing convective precipitation remains a long-standing problem in climate models, due to its highly parameterized nature and unclear role of drivers interacting over a wide range of spatial scales. We analyze and compare simulations of Glo ...

2025

Fusing Machine Learning Methods with Computational Fluid Dynamics and Sensor Data for Indoor Air Quality Monitoring

Athanasios Nenes

Monitoring indoor air quality is important nowdays, as noted by many researchers, since pollution potentially introduces a major impact on the health of people. There are many factors that increase the concentration of a pollutant in a room and there may e ...

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.2025

Stability of influenza A virus in droplets and aerosols is heightened by the presence of commensal respiratory bacteria

Tamar Kohn, Htet Kyi Wynn, Céline Terrettaz, Aline Laetitia Schaub, Athanasios Nenes, Kalliopi Violaki, Marta Augugliaro, Shannon Christa David, Ghislain Gilles Jean-Michel Motos, Walter Hugentobler, Laura José Costa Henriques, Daniel Scott Nolan

Aerosol transmission remains a major challenge for control of respiratory viruses, particularly those causing recurrent epidemics, like influenza A virus (IAV). These viruses are rarely expelled alone, but instead are embedded in a consortium of microorgan ...

American Society for Microbiology2024

Unraveling ice multiplication in winter orographic clouds via in-situ observations, remote sensing and modeling

Alexis Berne, Satoshi Takahama, Athanasios Nenes, Georgia Sotiropoulou, Anne-Claire Marie Billault--Roux, Paraskevi Georgakaki, Romanos Foskinis, Kunfeng Gao

Recent years have shown that secondary ice production (SIP) is ubiquitous, affecting all clouds from polar to tropical regions. SIP is not described well in models and may explain biases in warm mixed-phase cloud ice content and structure. Through modeling ...

Nature Portfolio2024

New Particle Formation Events Can Reduce Cloud Droplets in Boundary Layer Clouds at the Continental Scale

Athanasios Nenes, Spyros Pandis

New particle formation (NPF) substantially contributes to global cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), and their climate impacts. Individual NPF events are also thought to increase local CCN, cloud droplet number (CDN), and cloud albedo. High resolution simulat ...

Amer Geophysical Union2024