Environmental Science: Atmospheres Blog

Stephen Klippenstein, at Argonne National Laboratory, USA, is one of our Associate Editors handling the peer review of submitted manuscripts. He has spent his career trying to improve the accuracy and the utility of theoretical methods for predicting the kinetics of gas phase reactions. Recent progress in this endeavour has made it so that such calculations can now be of considerable value to efforts at modelling the chemistry of the atmosphere. In his opinion, the role for theoretical kinetics in atmospheric chemistry will expand enormously over the next few years.

As such, he is always excited to handle theoretical kinetics atmospheric chemistry papers for the journal and hopes that Environmental Science: Atmospheres can become the go-to source for such studies.

Publish with Environmental Science: Advances and receive a number of benefits including:

• Free Gold Open Access publication – all article processing charges are waives until mid-2023
• Rapid times to publication – our average time to decision for peer-reviewed manuscripts is just 36 days†
• Flexible article types with no word count restrictions or colour charges
• Broad readership: our global audience provides maximum exposure for your work
• Publicity on Twitter and WeChat for featured articles

The Royal Society of Chemistry is proud of its reputation for rigorous peer review and we take this one step further at Environmental Science: Atmospheres to offer fully transparent peer review; where readers can see how the paper has progressed from submission to acceptance. By publishing the editor’s decision letter, reviewers’ comments and authors’ response for all versions of the manuscript, readers know they can trust in the high-quality science that is being published in our journal.

Take a look at these recent articles in Environmental Science: Atmospheres that have been published with transparent peer review:

The surface composition of amino acid – halide salt solutions is pH-dependent by Isaak Unger, Carl Caleman, Olle Björneholm et al.

Evaluating SOA formation from different sources of semi- and intermediate-volatility organic compounds from the Athabasca oil sands by Patrick L. Hayes et al.

What controls the observed size-dependency of the growth rates of sub-10 nm atmospheric particles? by Jenni Kontkanen et al.

Environmental Science: Atmospheres is also a gold open access journal and so every article that we publish is completely free-to-read and easy to access. Our article processing charges (APCs) are waived until mid 2023 so now is the best time to submit your paper for maximum visibility with no cost to you.

With transparency and openness as core values, Environmental Science: Atmospheres is a journal that encourages research integrity, reproducibility and collaboration in the atmospheric science community. We hope you will consider choosing transparent peer review in your next submission.

Environmental Science: Atmospheres invites your high-impact research for our upcoming themed collection on particle levitation to address challenges in atmospheric science.

This themed collection will highlight recent high-impact work performed by researchers across the globe using single-particle levitation approaches, including optical, electrodynamic, and acoustic traps. Relevant topics include technique development (including theoretical and practical studies), aerosol physicochemical properties (including particle phase and structure, hygroscopic response, vapour pressure, surface tension, and optical properties), heterogeneous and photochemical reactions, and biologically relevant aerosols.

Guest Editors:  Bryan Bzdek, Man Nin Chan

Submission deadline: 30^th September 2022

Submit your manuscript: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/esatmos

APCs are waived until mid-2023.

Environmental Science: Atmospheres invites your high-impact research for our upcoming themed collection on dense networks and low-cost sensors.

For over a decade the advent of low-cost sensors has promised a paradigm shift in the way air pollution is measured. Although the full potential of these devices may not yet have been realised, a significant amount of work has now been done to demonstrate their capabilities. In contrast to the traditional model of air pollution monitoring, advances have predominantly come from novel software developments instead of hardware. From how to operate dense networks of devices to enhancing the information content of sensor data and making measurements in previously difficult to access environments (e.g. residential properties), the field of low-cost sensors for atmospheric measurements is a rapidly developing and exciting area of research.

Guest Editors:  R. Subramanian, Albert Presto, Peter Edwards, Mei Zheng

Submission deadline: 30^th November 2022

Submit your manuscript: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/esatmos

Dr Kevin Wyche is a Reader in Atmospheric Science at the University of Brighton and Director of the University’s Centre for Earth Observation Science. Kevin’s research interests revolve around study of the Earth’s atmosphere, with particular focus on tropospheric processes and air pollution. More specifically, his interdisciplinary research falls into the areas of fundamental chemical processes controlling tropospheric composition and change, air quality science, and analytical instrument development and application in Earth Observation. Kevin is also Principal Investigator of the Brighton Atmospheric Observatory, a community site within the national Atmospheric Measurement and Observation Facility.

Read Kevin’s Emerging Investigator Series article “The red sky: investigating the hurricane Ophelia Saharan dust and biomass burning aerosol event” and learn more about him and his research in the interview below:

How has your research evolved from the first article you published, to your article looking at a dust and biomass burning atmospheric event using modelling and remote sensing?

My research has evolved quite a bit and has come down closer to Earth, I started off in my MSc working on the upper atmosphere and looking at the mesosphere/lower thermosphere (MLT) metal layers, but mostly now, our tropospheric observatory in Brighton looks at atmospheric composition and evolution close to the ground.

Techniques have also definitely changed, much more can be done remotely, rather than being hands-on in the lab – this makes essential fieldwork easier and more accessible. So with the Ophelia event, for instance, I was able to log onto the lidar system from home and capture the event as it evolved. The general shift within society to doing more things remotely has opened a lot of doors for international working and collaboration.

More generally, being able to miniaturise instruments and put them on drones, has made the atmosphere more accessible.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?

COVID-19 has been utterly tragic and has had many awful consequences, but it has been a totally unprecedented event in our lifetime. The lockdowns were so dramatic and large in scale that they led to a genuine “anthropause”, giving us the unique opportunity to use the atmosphere as one giant experiment, as a lens to look into the future and see what might happen in terms of atmospheric composition, change and impacts, if we can make the paradigm shifts we need towards a Net Zero future.

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

The World Health Organization tell us that around 99% of people on Earth are breathing air that is potentially hazardous for health. So, we need to answer questions around how are we going to improve our air, how quickly can we do this and what will be the atmospheric response, because the atmosphere is a complex beast and it may not respond as we first might think.

What do you find most challenging about your research?

Time – and finding enough time to do everything. As an academic at a teaching university, it is a real challenge to balance all the competing pressures on your time. From maintaining a lab and a research group, doing the science, writing the papers, applying for grants, to designing and delivering current and engaging teaching to our undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as unseen admin, marketing, recruitment, and finance tasks – and much more.

In terms of my research itself, atmospheric measurements are hard, we are trying to measure tiny quantities of often transient species against a constantly evolving backdrop. And to add to this, it is so much harder than people think to keep an observatory with multiple instruments running 24/7, 365 days a year producing accurate and reliable data for us to use to conduct our science.

How do you feel about Environmental Science: Atmospheres as a place to publish?

I found ES: Atmospheres a great place to publish. Clearly, there is great heritage there, being a Royal Society of Chemistry publication, but also, it’s exciting being able to make your mark in a new journal, at the start of its journey. In terms of the process, it was excellent, very quick, efficient and above all, communication was great throughout. Often you submit an article you have been working on for months or years and everything goes silent, you can be quite blind on where things are, but ES: Atmospheres kept us up to date with progress throughout and we were always aware of timescales and when things would happen. Overall, it was probably the most positive journal submission process I’ve been through.

How do you spend your spare time?

With the spare time I have, I like to paint and I like to spend time riding or tinkering with my motorbike, and rugby (watching more than playing nowadays!) – having spent a lot of time there for my PhD, I’m a big Leicester Tigers fan.

Which upcoming conferences or events will you be attending?

For us next will be EGU General Assembly and then the ESA Living Planet Symposium, where we’ll be looking to present some first findings from a couple of projects funded by NERC and HDRUK on changes in ambient tropospheric composition during our COVID-19 lockdowns.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?

That’s tough, I’d have loved to have been a professional rugby player, but I never had that level of skill! I also think I’d have loved to have done some form of archaeology – a lot of atmospheric science is more like a window into the future, but science as a window to the past is equally fascinating.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early-career scientists?

Put time aside dedicated to certain tasks, turn off your email and put away everything else and focus on completing that one task. With so many competing demands on you, especially in your early career, it is so easy to get spread too thin, for you to try and do everything at once and ultimately achieve nothing.

Environmental Science: Atmospheres seeks your high-impact research for our upcoming themed collection on the Applications of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in Atmospheric Science.

The collection will showcase the utility of UAS across the full spectrum of atmospheric science. We welcome papers that present recent findings from UAS-enabled atmospheric science, and also those which set the tone of future work that may be enabled by UAS sampling.

The deadline for submissions is 31 July 2022. Authors are welcome to submit original research as a Communication article or Full Paper, or contribute a review article. Please contact the editorial office to register your interest, or if you require any further information about publishing with us.

Environmental Science: Atmospheres recently welcomed two new members to our growing journal Advisory Board.

Dr Ottmar Möhler is based at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, and specialises in cloud microphysics, ice nucleation and aerosol physics.

Ying I. Tsai is the Director of Indoor Air Quality Research at Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, and studies the characterisation, long-range transport and source apportionment of aerosols, as well as the allergy and health risks of nano/micron aerosols in indoor air.

Ottmar and Ying will play a crucial role in supporting our journal, and their ideas and experience will help shape our scientific content. Linking fundamental and applied research in atmospheric science, our gold open-access journal is free-to-publish until mid-2023 – will you choose us for your next publication?

We recently marked Environmental Science: Atmospheres’ first birthday! Since we opened for submissions in August last year, we’re proud to reflect on our journey over the past twelve months.

We published our first issues, and have put together a web collection highlighting content from these. A broad range of topics are covered, linking fundamental and applied research and covering global to molecular scales, and we hope that you’ll enjoy reading these articles. We also held several desktop seminars, featuring cutting-edge research from some of our inaugural issue authors.

Our Associate Editor team grew to five – Claudia, Lin, Nønne, Stephen and Tzung-May are proud to be part of our journal. As active researchers who have published close to 500 research papers between them, you can trust their expertise in handling your manuscripts.

We’ve launched two themed collections – you can discover the submission criteria below.

Emerging Investigators Series

Aerosol Formation in the Urban Atmosphere

When you publish with us, you can opt in to transparent peer review, something we offer our authors as part of our commitment to transparency and open science. To date, 53% of authors have taken us up on this opportunity.

While we’re proud of our first year, there’s still so much more we want to achieve. And here’s where our community comes in – whether you review for us, share our content on social media or publish with us, we’re so grateful for what you do. If you aren’t involved with us already, we hope you’ll consider it over the next twelve months.

We are delighted to welcome 14 new members to the Environmental Science: Atmospheres Advisory Board. You can find out more about each member below, and read some of their recent work from across the Environmental Science family of journals in our online collection.

	Katye Altieri, University of Cape Town, South Africa. Dr Altieri is a Lecturer in the Oceanography Department at the University of Cape Town. Her interdisciplinary research includes components of atmospheric chemistry, oceanography, biogeochemistry, development, and economics. Dr Altieri’s research goals are several; ranging from understanding the impact of anthropogenic nitrogen emissions on surface ocean biogeochemistry to developing climate change mitigation strategies which promote economic development.
	William Bloss, University of Birmingham, UK. Based at the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham, Professor Bloss’ group work to improve scientific understanding of the causes of poor air quality. Their work combines field measurements with numerical modelling. Professor Bloss is also involved with the West Midlands Air Quality Improvement Programme (WM-Air), which supports improving air quality to benefit health, the economy and the environment in the West Midlands.
	Delphine Farmer, Colorado State University, USA. Dr Farmer’s research uses mass spectrometry to study the complex gas-phase and aerosol chemistry taking place in different environments – including forests, the urban environment and indoors. She obtained her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, before undertaking an NOAA Climate & Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Colorado Boulder.
	Barbara Finlayson-Pitts, University of California Irvine, USA. Founder and co-Director of the AirUCI Institute, Professor Finlayson-Pitts and her group primarily focus on understanding the fundamental kinetics, mechanisms, and photochemistry of atmospheric reactions. In 2019, Professor Finlayson-Pitts was awarded the RSC’s Environment Prize for her outstanding contributions to the chemical sciences in the area of environment, sustainability and energy.
	Christian George, University Claude Bernard Lyon, France. Professor George is based in the Institut de recherches sur la catalyse et l’environnement de Lyon (IRCEYLON). His work brings together several disciplines, including atmospheric chemistry, environmental chemistry, physical chemistry and chemical kinetics, and he collaborates extensively with researchers in those areas. A particular focus of his research is using physical chemistry techniques to understand fundamental aspects of atmospheric science.
	Tom Hanisco, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA. Dr Hanisco carries out laboratory and field experiments to investigate trace species in the atmosphere. Since 2020, he has been Head of Operations of the Pandonia Global Network; a joint enterprise by the European Space Agency and National Aeronautics and Space Administration that provides real-time, standardized, calibrated and verified air quality data and associated uncertainty values.
	Lucy Hutyra, Boston University, USA. Professor Hutyra leads the Terrestrial Carbon Lab at Boston University. Her multidisciplinary research investigates the characteristics and drivers of atmosphere-biosphere carbon exchange, with a particular focus on urban systems. She obtained her PhD from Harvard University.
	Tuhin Kumar Mandal, National Physical Laboratory, India. Dr Mandal is a Senior Principal Scientist at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), New Delhi. His various research interests include tropical atmospheric chemistry, and the analysis and source apportionment of atmospheric trace gases. He is also interested in atmospheric chemical modelling.
	Linsey Marr, Virginia Tech, USA. Professor Marr is the Charles P. Lunsford Professor in Engineering at Virgina Tech. Her research interests include characterising the emissions, fate, and transport of air pollutants in order to improve air quality and health. This interdisciplinary research employs elements of physics, chemistry, and biology to address this pressing challenge.
	Yujing Mu, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences/Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. Dr Mu and his research group are interested in the atmospheric chemistry of trace gases. Areas of focus include atmosphere–biosphere exchange, field measurements of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as well as the fundamental chemical kinetics of atmospheric reactions involving VOCs and reduced sulfur compounds.
	Patricia K. Quinn, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), USA. Dr Quinn is the Atmospheric Chemistry Leader at PMEL. She and her colleagues study how the world’s ocean interact with the atmosphere, and map the spatial and temporal distributions of both natural and man-made aerosols in remote marine regions.
	Andrew Rickard, University of York, UK. Dr Rickard is interested in atmospheric chemistry mechanisms, kinetic modelling of complex processes, and reactive intermediates. He develops and updates the Master Chemical Mechanism, which describes the detailed gas-phase chemical processes involved in the tropospheric degradation of a series of primary emitted volatile organic compounds, and is used across the atmospheric science community in science and policy applications.
	Alfonso Saiz-Lopez,  Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Spain. Professor Saiz-Lopez is involved in a number of research areas, including reactive halogen chemistry in the troposphere. He obtained his PhD in atmospheric and physical chemistry from the University of East Anglia, UK, and has served as Head of Department of Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate at CSIC since 2015.
	Sachchida Nand Tripathi, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India. Dr Tripathi is a Senior Professor and Head of Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Kanpur. He has pioneered low-cost sensor technology for urban air quality monitoring and has also worked on aerosol-induced cloud invigoration effect. He is an elected fellow of several professional bodies, including the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) and is lead co-ordinator of the National Knowledge Network; an alliance which support’s India’s National Clean Air Programme.

Celebrating the full breadth of atmospheric science being conducted by our fantastic early-career community

We are delighted to announce the launch of the Emerging Investigators collection of Environmental Science: Atmospheres.

About You

You’re an independent research leader, within 10 years of your PhD award. You’re carrying out research with the journal scope, which covers fundamental and applied atmospheric science spanning the entirety of the Earth’s atmosphere.

If this sounds like you – we’d really like to hear from you.

Full consideration will be given to those who have taken career breaks or have followed a different career path.

About Us

Environmental Science: Atmospheres covers the full breadth of atmospheric science and links fundamental and applied research. We’re a space for different communities to come together and for collaborations to form – and when you contribute to the collection, we’ll make sure your work is visible to our interdisciplinary readership in a number of ways.

• An interview with you, as the lead author – see our sister journal Environmental Science: Nano Emerging Investigators collection for an idea of how this would look
• Priority for cover artwork positions
• Promotion through the journal Twitter page
• Promotion of a TikTok or video abstract through social media if you want to make one
• As a gold open-access journal, your article will be downloadable free from our webpage with no barriers to access

Submitting Your Work

The collection is rolling, meaning that you won’t be constrained by a fixed submission deadline. Simply submit your work through this link and tick the box when you are asked if you would like your manuscript to be considered for the Emerging Investigator Series. If accepted for publication, your article will be published online as soon as it’s ready.

Take a moment to familiarise yourself with the journal-specific requirements, including an Environmental Significance Statement (maximum 120 words) setting your work in a broader environmental science context, before submitting.

We would welcome primary research, either in Communication or Full Paper formats, or review articles. Full details of article types can be found on our webpage.

Getting in Touch

If you would like any further information on the Emerging Investigators collection, on the journal, or any aspect of the publication process, please don’t hesitate to contact Jon Ferrier in the Editorial office at esatmospheres-rsc@rsc.org.

You can also keep in touch with the latest news from Environmental Science: Atmospheres by signing up to our journal newsletter, and following us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/EnvSciRSC