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Topic · Atmospheric Science

Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols

Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols is a research topic within Atmospheric Science. Science Explorer counts 76k research works in it since 1950. 9.8% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the characteristics, sources, impacts, and modeling of atmospheric aerosols, including black carbon and organic aerosols. It explores their role in air quality, climate forcing, haze pollution, and tropospheric chemistry.

  • Atmospheric Aerosols
  • Black Carbon
  • Organic Aerosol
  • Air Quality
  • Climate Forcing
  • Aerosol Formation
  • Emission Modeling
  • Chemical Composition
  • Haze Pollution
  • Tropospheric Chemistry
Research works
76k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
7.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.8%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-4%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
45% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols

Which countries lead Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (4.7k and 2.4k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 4.7k works
  2. 2 United States 2.4k works
  3. 3 India 735 works
  4. 4 Germany 547 works
  5. 5 France 524 works
  6. 6 United Kingdom 436 works
  7. 7 South Korea 358 works
  8. 8 Russia 318 works
  9. 9 Japan 310 works
  10. 10 Canada 269 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: 44.6%United States: 22.4%India: 6.9%Germany: 5.2%6 others listed: 20.9%45%largest
China4,729 · 44.6%United States2,381 · 22.4%India735 · 6.9%Germany547 · 5.2%6 others listed2,216 · 20.9%

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

Which institutions lead Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols research?

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

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 674 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 245 works
  3. 3 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 185 works
  4. 4 Nanjing University of Information Science and TechnologyChina 174 works
  5. 5 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 151 works
  6. 6 China Meteorological AdministrationChina 134 works
  7. 7 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 122 works
  8. 8 Peking UniversityChina 115 works
  9. 9 University of Colorado BoulderUnited States 97 works
  10. 10 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationUnited States 86 works

Who are the leading researchers in Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols include Michaël Grätzel, Wei Huang and Yi Ping Cui.

  1. 1 Michaël Grätzel Switzerland 458k citations
  2. 2 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  3. 3 Yi Ping Cui United States 261k citations
  4. 4 Xiaogang Wang China 260k citations
  5. 5 Lídia Morawska Australia 244k citations
  6. 6 Philippe Ciais France 237k citations
  7. 7 Kenji Watanabe Japan 237k citations
  8. 8 Donald G. Truhlar United States 230k citations
  9. 9 Stefan Grimme Germany 224k citations
  10. 10 Kai You Wang China 224k 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 chemistry and aerosols?

The most cited paper in Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols is "Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics: From Air Pollution to Climate Change" (John H. Seinfeld, Spyros Ν. Pandis, K. Birgitta Noone, 1998), with 9,041 citations. Next come "Occurrence of the potent mutagens 2- nitrobenzanthrone and 3-nitrobenzanthrone in fine airborne particles" (8,534) and "The representative concentration pathways: an overview" (8,089).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics: From Air Pollution to Climate Change John H. Seinfeld, Spyros Ν. Pandis, K. Birgitta Noone · Physics Today Oct 1998 9,041
2 Occurrence of the potent mutagens 2- nitrobenzanthrone and 3-nitrobenzanthrone in fine airborne particles Aldenor Gomes Santos, Gisele O. da Rocha, Jaílson B. de Andrade · Scientific Reports Open access 3 Jan 2019 8,534
3 The representative concentration pathways: an overview Detlef Peter van Vuuren, Jae Edmonds, Mikiko Kainuma et al. · Climatic Change Open access 4 Aug 2011 8,089
4 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
5 Bounding the role of black carbon in the climate system: A scientific assessment Tami C. Bond et al. · Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres Open access 22 Apr 2013 6,885
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols research done?

The largest centres of Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Nanjing (China), Shanghai (China) and Guangzhou (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in De Bilt, Greenbelt and Hampton.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 1.5k works
  2. 2 NanjingChina 366 works
  3. 3 ShanghaiChina 297 works
  4. 4 GuangzhouChina 271 works
  5. 5 BoulderUnited States 181 works
  6. 6 ParisFrance 180 works
  7. 7 WuhanChina 152 works
  8. 8 HefeiChina 149 works
  9. 9 HangzhouChina 139 works
  10. 10 SeoulSouth Korea 136 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. De BiltNL · 22.4 works33×
  2. GreenbeltUS · 38.7 works30×
  3. HamptonUS · 35.4 works29×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols on the map

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

Among universities, judged by research, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Nankai University and Tongji University score highest, combining citation 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 16.52%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Tongji UniversityNankai UniversityTsinghua UniversityHong Kong 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.

Citation 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
1Hong Kong University of Science and TechnologyChina 72.213.1%9.3×45 +66.5%
2Nankai UniversityChina 72.022.0%5.2×42 +9.5%
3Tongji UniversityChina 70.923.8%1.9×35 +62.5%
4Tsinghua UniversityChina 68.717.1%2.8×75 +2.0%
5Peking UniversityChina 68.612.6%4.8×115 +1.3%
6Nanjing UniversityChina 66.815.6%6.5×71 +6.4%
7University of Colorado BoulderUnited States 66.013.5%18.0×97 -20.0%
8King Abdullah University of Science and TechnologySaudi Arabia 64.619.0%7.3×24 +10.0%
9Southern University of Science and TechnologyChina 63.517.2%3.8×24 +97.1%
10Fudan UniversityChina 63.411.3%4.4×82 +30.1%

Universities only. The score blends citation 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 chemistry and aerosols, country by country

Is Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 4% 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 chemistry and aerosols as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.053% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%0.15%Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols0.051% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols 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%Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols9.8% 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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