Harri Kokkola
Papers
7
Total Citations
126
H-Index
5
About
Harri Kokkola is an atmospheric scientist whose research centers on aerosol optical properties, radiative forcing, and the development of innovative methods for characterizing aerosol loading in the atmosphere. His work addresses fundamental challenges in climate science, particularly the need to understand how aerosols influence Earth's energy budget across historical and contemporary timescales. Among his most significant contributions is his 2016 study applying machine learning algorithms to retrieve aerosol optical depth (AOD) from surface solar radiation measurements — a methodological breakthrough that extends reliable aerosol records back before the era of dedicated instrumentation. This work, alongside his measurement-based estimates of brown carbon's direct radiative effect over the Indo-Gangetic Plain (2015, 34 citations), has helped quantify the climate impact of light-absorbing organic aerosols in a critically understudied region. Kokkola has also played an important role in large-scale model evaluation efforts, contributing to the AeroCom initiative's multi-model assessments of aerosol optical properties and absorption, helping to identify systematic biases in global climate models — including those related to biomass burning aerosols. With research spanning ground-based networks, satellite retrievals, and global modeling, Kokkola's work meaningfully advances the scientific community's ability to constrain aerosol-climate interactions.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2Direct radiative effect by brown carbon over the Indo-Gangetic Plain34 citations · 2015
- 3
- 4Satellite-based evaluation of AeroCom model bias in biomass burning regions20 citations · 2022
- 5
- 6Aerosol absorption in global models from AeroCom Phase III4 citations · 2021
- 7