Journal of Atmospheric Sciences

Journal of Atmospheric Sciences
Title	Journal of Atmospheric Sciences
Abbreviation	J. Atmos. Sci.
Discipline	Atmospheric sciences
Publisher	American Meteorological Society
Country	United States
History	1944–present
Frequency	Monthly
Issn	0022-4928

Contents

History

The journal was established in 1944 during a period of rapid expansion in atmospheric research associated with World War II and the postwar growth of federal science policy under agencies such as the Office of Scientific Research and Development and the National Science Foundation. Founding editors and early contributors included scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of Chicago, Ohio State University, University of California, Los Angeles, and Cornell University. Over successive editorial tenures, the journal reflected methodological shifts influenced by institutions like Los Alamos National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, as well as by programs such as Project Cirrus, Operation Crossroads, and the International Geophysical Year. The journal’s format and policies evolved alongside initiatives from the Royal Society and the National Academy of Sciences on peer review and publication ethics.

The journal publishes original research on topics including atmospheric dynamics, mesoscale meteorology, synoptic analysis, turbulence, boundary-layer processes, radiative transfer, cloud microphysics, and atmospheric chemistry. Typical contributions draw on methods developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Reading, Imperial College London, ETH Zurich, and University of Colorado Boulder, and engage with observational platforms such as GOES satellites, NOAA research vessels, ARM Climate Research Facility, European Space Agency missions, and ground networks maintained by Met Office. Authors often collaborate with centers like National Center for Atmospheric Research, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and cite datasets from projects such as Global Precipitation Measurement, TRMM, ICOS, and Argo (oceanography). Review articles have synthesized work related to programs like TOGA, CLIVAR, GEWEX, and VAMOS.

The journal is indexed in major bibliographic services including Web of Science, Scopus, INSPEC, and GeoRef. Abstracting entries appear in databases curated by organizations such as American Geophysical Union and are included in aggregators operated by ProQuest, EBSCO, and CrossRef. Citation metrics are tracked by entities including Clarivate Analytics, Google Scholar, and Altmetric which aggregate attention alongside policy citations in reports from United Nations Environment Programme, Inter-American Development Bank, and regional agencies like Environment Canada and Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

The editorial board has historically included editors and associate editors affiliated with universities and laboratories such as University of Washington, University of Michigan, Columbia University, Yale University, Brown University, Duke University, McGill University, University of Toronto, KAUST, and Peking University. Publication practices follow standards promoted by organizations including the Committee on Publication Ethics and intersociety agreements between the American Meteorological Society and publishers such as Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Springer Nature. The journal employs double-blind and single-blind review options used in concert with data-sharing policies aligned with initiatives like DataCite and standards from Committee on Data (CODATA). Special issues have been guest-edited in collaboration with consortia such as COSPAR and conferences like American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting and European Geosciences Union General Assembly.

The journal’s impact factor has been reported in annual releases by Journal Citation Reports and discussed in reviews by panels convened under the aegis of the National Research Council and the Royal Meteorological Society. Its articles have influenced policy briefs prepared for bodies including the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the European Commission, and the African Union. The journal has been recognized in awards and citations tied to prizes from organizations like the American Meteorological Society (e.g., Rossby Research Medal recipients) and has been cited in Nobel-related literature discussing work performed at institutions such as Niels Bohr Institute and CERN where cross-disciplinary techniques were adapted.

Seminal papers published in the journal have advanced theories and models developed by scientists associated with Princeton University, MIT, University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University. Notable contributions include foundational work on geostrophic turbulence linked to researchers at University of Cambridge and University of Exeter, pioneering boundary-layer studies aligned with experiments at Wollongong University and Delft University of Technology, and landmark numerical modeling studies using codes developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory and National Center for Atmospheric Research. Influential conceptual advances published in the journal have been cited alongside classic works from Vilhelm Bjerknes-inspired traditions, methodologies from Andrei Kolmogorov-related turbulence theory, and observational syntheses comparable to analyses from Keeling Curve studies and paleoclimate reconstructions used by PAGES.

Category:Atmospheric science journals