Overview
- Researchers rescaled prior model estimates downward by 100 to 10,000 times after comparing simulations with observations from 283 sites collected between 2014 and 2024.
- Revised totals indicate about 610 quadrillion particles per year from land sources versus about 26 quadrillion from oceans.
- Despite fewer particles from the sea, the emitted mass appears higher over oceans because the average oceanic particles are larger.
- Median concentrations are 0.08 particles per cubic meter over land and 0.003 over sea, well below many earlier figures.
- The authors cite major gaps in particle-size data and lab protocols and call for standardized monitoring, as a separate Science Advances study using electron microscopy reports far higher local counts in two Chinese cities.