Luka Ilić

The Magic of Minerals in the Air

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I am an atmospheric scientist working on the numerical modelling of mineral dust — one of the dominant aerosol types by mass in the atmosphere, lifted mainly from the Sahara and the wider Northern Hemisphere dust belt. Dust particles differ in size, composition and mineralogy, and can stay airborne for days to weeks, crossing entire ocean basins before rain or gravity brings them down.

My work centres on how the mineral composition of dust governs its ice nucleating ability, its optical properties and its radiative effect.

I coordinated the Barcelona Supercomputing Center contribution to operational aerosol model validation for the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, including the evaluation of the CAMS operational forecasting system.

My PhD at the Institute of Physics Belgrade produced the first implementation of a mineralogy-sensitive ice nucleation parameterization inside a coupled numerical weather prediction and dust transport model.

I have also worked on biological aerosols, including a physically based numerical model for airborne pollen and sub-pollen particle forecasting, aimed at thunderstorm asthma risk assessment.

Before academia I designed and ran numerical weather prediction systems on Beowulf clusters and large HPC infrastructures, working with the GFS, Eta and WRF-NMM models.

Papers

1. Eskes, H., Tsikerdekis, A., Benedictow, A., … Ilić, L., … Peuch, V.-H. (2024). Technical note: Evaluation of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service Cy48R1 upgrade of June 2023. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 24, 9475–9514.
2. Mijić, Z., Ilić, L., Kuzmanoski, M. (2023). Data quality assurance for atmospheric probing and modeling: characterization of Belgrade Raman lidar station. Contributions of the Astronomical Observatory Skalnaté Pleso, 53(3), 163–175.
3. Nickovic, S., Petković, S., Ilić, L., Pejanović, G., Mijić, Z., Huete, A., Marks, G. (2023). Prediction of airborne pollen and sub-pollen particles for thunderstorm asthma outbreaks assessment. Science of the Total Environment, 864, 160879.
4. Barreto, Á., Cuevas, E., García, R. D., Carrillo, J., Prospero, J. M., Ilić, L., Basart, S., Berjón, A. J., Marrero, C. L., Hernández, Y., Bustos, J. J., Ničković, S., Yela, M. (2022). Long-term characterisation of the vertical structure of the Saharan Air Layer over the Canary Islands using lidar and radiosonde profiles: implications for radiative and cloud processes over the subtropical Atlantic Ocean. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 22, 739–763.
5. Ilić, L., Jovanović, A., Kuzmanoski, M., Lazić, L., Madonna, F., Rosoldi, M., Mytilinaios, M., Marinou, E., Ničković, S. (2022). Mineralogy sensitive immersion freezing parameterization in DREAM. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 127, e2021JD035093.
6. Ilić, L., Kuzmanoski, M., Kolarž, P., Nina, A., Srećković, V., Mijić, Z., Bajčetić, J., Andrić, M. (2018). Changes of atmospheric properties over Belgrade, observed using remote sensing and in situ methods during the partial solar eclipse of 20 March 2015. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, 171, 250–259.
7. Vudragović, D., Ilić, L., Jovanović, P., Nickovic, S., Bogojević, A., Balaž, A. (2018). VI-SEEM DREAMCLIMATE service. Scalable Computing: Practice and Experience, 19(2), 215–221.
8. Granados-Muñoz, M. J., Navas-Guzmán, F., … Ilić, L., … Ničković, S., … Vuković, A., … Alados-Arboledas, L. (2016). Profiling of aerosol microphysical properties at several EARLINET/AERONET sites during the July 2012 ChArMEx/EMEP campaign. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 16, 7043–7066.
9. Lazić, L., Aničić Urošević, M., Mijić, Z., Vuković, G., Ilić, L. (2016). Traffic contribution to air pollution in urban street canyons: integrated application of the OSPM, moss biomonitoring and spectral analysis. Atmospheric Environment, 141, 347–360.
10. Binietoglou, I., Basart, S., … Ilić, L., … Pejanović, G., … Vuković, A., … Wagner, J. (2015). A methodology for investigating dust model performance using synergistic EARLINET/AERONET dust concentration retrievals. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 8, 3577–3600.
11. Stojić, A., Stanišić Stojić, S., Šoštarić, A., Ilić, L., Mijić, Z., Rajšić, S. (2015). Characterization of VOC sources in an urban area based on PTR-MS measurements and receptor modelling. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 22, 13137–13152.
12. Lazić, L., Pejanović, G., Živković, M., Ilić, L. (2014). Improved wind forecasts for wind power generation using the Eta model and MOS (Model Output Statistics) method. Energy, 73, 567–574.
13. Papayannis, A., Nicolae, D., Kokkalis, P., Binietoglou, I., Talianu, C., Belegante, L., Tsaknakis, G., Cazacu, M. M., Vetres, I., Ilić, L. (2014). Optical, size and mass properties of mixed type aerosols in Greece and Romania as observed by synergy of lidar and sunphotometers in combination with model simulations: a case study. Science of the Total Environment, 500–501, 277–294.
14. Ivković, S., Ilić, L., Stanković, M., Radojičić, R., Babović, Z. (2013). Source-sink model. IPSI Transactions on Internet Research, 9(2), 28–33.
15. Kotroni, V., Floros, E., Lagouvardos, K., Pejanović, G., Ilić, L., Živković, M. (2010). Multi-model multi-analysis ensemble weather forecasting on the grid for the South Eastern Mediterranean Region. Earth Science Informatics, 3, 209–218.

The remaining 60 items — 1 book chapter, 18 CAMS reports, 9 conference papers, 30 conference abstracts, 1 thesis, 1 technical solution — are on the complete publication list.

Field campaigns

• J-WADI — Wadi Rum Desert Campaign Jordan, 2022
  Jordan Wind erosion And Dust Investigation: field measurements of dust emission and properties in Wadi Rum, led by BSC and KIT.
• ACTRIS COVID-19 campaign Belgrade, 2020
  Coordinated EARLINET lidar measurements of tropospheric aerosol change during the lockdown period.
• PRE-TECT Crete, Greece, 2017
  Operational dust forecasting with ice nucleation parameterizations run in support of the experiment.

Also here: talks (19 invited and contributed), projects (nine, 2007 to 2025), and outreach (interviews and press).

Videos

The Dust Protocol

The Dust Protocol turns dust model output into sound and image, performed live at science and art venues.

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