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Topic · Global and Planetary Change

Atmospheric aerosols and clouds

Atmospheric aerosols and clouds is a research topic within Global and Planetary Change. Science Explorer counts 37k research works in it since 1950. 9.7% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the impact of aerosols on climate and the hydrological cycle. It covers topics such as aerosol properties, radiative forcing, cloud interactions, ice nucleation, and air quality, using satellite observations and remote sensing techniques.

  • Aerosols
  • Climate
  • Hydrological Cycle
  • Atmospheric Dust
  • Radiative Forcing
  • Clouds
  • Satellite Observations
  • Air Quality
  • Ice Nucleation
  • Remote Sensing
Research works
37k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3.6k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.7%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-12%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
37% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Atmospheric aerosols and clouds

Which countries lead Atmospheric aerosols and clouds research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (1.9k and 1.3k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 1.9k works
  2. 2 United States 1.3k works
  3. 3 Germany 398 works
  4. 4 India 393 works
  5. 5 France 299 works
  6. 6 Russia 284 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 205 works
  8. 8 Japan 165 works
  9. 9 South Korea 146 works
  10. 10 Italy 129 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 36.7%United States: 24.3%Germany: 7.7%India: 7.6%6 others listed: 23.8%37%largest
China1,894 · 36.7%United States1,255 · 24.3%Germany398 · 7.7%India393 · 7.6%6 others listed1,227 · 23.8%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Atmospheric aerosols and clouds research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Atmospheric aerosols and clouds research, followed by Russian Academy of Sciences and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 311 works
  2. 2 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 176 works
  3. 3 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 140 works
  4. 4 China Meteorological AdministrationChina 140 works
  5. 5 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 109 works
  6. 6 Nanjing University of Information Science and TechnologyChina 100 works
  7. 7 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationUnited States 100 works
  8. 8 National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationUnited States 68 works
  9. 9 University of Colorado BoulderUnited States 63 works
  10. 10 Ministry of Earth SciencesIndia 60 works

Who are the leading researchers in Atmospheric aerosols and clouds?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Atmospheric aerosols and clouds include Wei Huang, Yi Ping Cui and Lídia Morawska.

  1. 1 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  2. 2 Yi Ping Cui United States 261k citations
  3. 3 Lídia Morawska Australia 244k citations
  4. 4 Philippe Ciais France 237k citations
  5. 5 Guangming Zeng China 204k citations
  6. 6 Michelle Lee Bell United States 197k citations
  7. 7 Michael D Brauer Canada 187k citations
  8. 8 Annette Peters Germany 176k citations
  9. 9 Yuming Guo Australia 175k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Atmospheric aerosols and clouds?

The most cited paper in Atmospheric aerosols and clouds is "AERONET—A Federated Instrument Network and Data Archive for Aerosol Characterization" (BRENT N. HOLBEN, T. F. Eck, I. Slutsker et al., 1998), with 8,604 citations. Next come "NOAA’s HYSPLIT Atmospheric Transport and Dispersion Modeling System" (7,018) and "Thermal Radiation Heat Transfer" (5,429).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 AERONET—A Federated Instrument Network and Data Archive for Aerosol Characterization BRENT N. HOLBEN, T. F. Eck, I. Slutsker et al. · Remote Sensing of Environment Open access Oct 1998 8,604
2 NOAA’s HYSPLIT Atmospheric Transport and Dispersion Modeling System Ariel Stein, Roland R. Draxler, Glenn D. Rolph et al. · Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 4 May 2015 7,018
3 Thermal Radiation Heat Transfer Gordon Ellison Book chapter 8 Nov 2010 5,429
4 Aerosols, Cloud Microphysics, and Fractional Cloudiness Bruce A. Albrecht · Science 15 Sep 1989 5,026
5 Evolution of Organic Aerosols in the Atmosphere Jose Luis Jimenez et al. · Science 10 Dec 2009 4,903
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Atmospheric aerosols and clouds research done?

The largest centres of Atmospheric aerosols and clouds research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Nanjing (China), Boulder (United States) and Moscow (Russia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Offenbach, Greenbelt and Hampton.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 689 works
  2. 2 NanjingChina 168 works
  3. 3 BoulderUnited States 138 works
  4. 4 MoscowRussia 113 works
  5. 5 ParisFrance 110 works
  6. 6 HefeiChina 95 works
  7. 7 WuhanChina 89 works
  8. 8 LanzhouChina 82 works
  9. 9 TomskRussia 79 works
  10. 10 ShanghaiChina 75 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. OffenbachDE · 21.1 works148×
  2. GreenbeltUS · 45.2 works74×
  3. HamptonUS · 43.1 works73×
  4. BoulderUS · 138.2 works32×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Atmospheric aerosols and clouds than the world average.

See Atmospheric aerosols and clouds on the map

Where is the best place to study Atmospheric aerosols and clouds?

Among universities, judged by research, China University of Geosciences, Lanzhou University and Peking University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 14.34%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →China University of …Peking UniversityUniversity of Colora…Lanzhou University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1China University of GeosciencesChina 70.919.1%7.7×20 +41.2%
2Lanzhou UniversityChina 70.612.3%15.1×58 +36.4%
3Peking UniversityChina 68.115.9%3.6×42 +6.0%
4University of Colorado BoulderUnited States 67.813.3%24.6×63 -19.8%
5Nanjing University of Information Science and TechnologyChina 67.010.6%44.4×100 -5.2%
6ETH ZurichSwitzerland 64.310.5%9.4×36 -23.5%
7Nanjing UniversityChina 63.015.3%5.8×30 -1.5%
8University of Maryland, College ParkUnited States 61.817.1%9.4×30 -43.0%
9Hong Kong University of Science and TechnologyChina 61.116.8%3.8×9 +37.4%
10University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 61.012.5%5.5×50 -0.2%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Atmospheric aerosols and clouds, country by country

Is Atmospheric aerosols and clouds research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 12% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2020.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Atmospheric aerosols and clouds as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.022% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Atmospheric aerosols and clouds0.024% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Atmospheric aerosols and clouds over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Atmospheric aerosols and clouds9.8% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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