Research Infographic- How Aerosols and Brown Carbon Interact with Light

We are pleased to share this infographic on how brown carbon interacts with light. The study, which focuses on Mexico City, was published in Issue 3 of Environmental Science: Atmospheres, and can be read in full at: Aerosol optical properties and brown carbon in Mexico City

Armando Retama, Mariana Ramos-Cerón, Olivia Rivera-Hernández, George Allen and Erik Velasco, Environ. Sci.: Atmos., 2022, 2, 315-334

 

Research Infographic- Investigating Nanoparticles Emission in OME-fueled Engines

We are excited to share this infographic on the emission of nanoparticles from engines. This work was published in Issue 2 of Environmental Science: Atmospheres and can be read in full at: Particle emissions of a heavy-duty engine fueled with polyoxymethylene dimethyl ethers (OME)

Alexander D. Gelner, Dieter Rothe, Carsten Kykal, Martin Irwin, Alessandro Sommer, Christian Pastoetter, Martin Härtl, Malte Jaensch and Georg Wachtmeister, Environ. Sci.: Atmos., 2022, 2, 291-304

Themed collection on bioaerosols: detection, transport and risk assessment is open for submissions

In this gold open-access themed collection, Environmental Science: Atmospheres focuses on bioaerosols, which are airborne particles that are living or originate from living organisms, such as bacteria, viruses, fungal spores and pollen.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Sampling and detection of bioaerosols
  • Bioaerosol sensors
  • Source and emission of bioaerosols
  • Environmental transport of bioaerosols
  • Exposure and risk assessment
  • Ventilation and air quality control
  • Risk control and management

Bioaerosols are a natural component of both indoor and outdoor air, and some can have significant impacts on human health, agriculture and ecosystems. One example is the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 via airborne virus-containing particles. Papers that deal with detection, measurement, transport, risk mitigation, and other related research of bioaerosols are within the scope of the themed collection.

Guest Editors: Cindy Morris (INRAE, Avignon), Xiaole Zhang (ETH Zurich), Malin Alsved (Lund University), Joshua Santarpia (University of Nebraska Medical Center)

Submission deadline: 31st October 2022

Submit your manuscript, quoting ‘EABioaer22’: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/esatmos

APCs are waived until mid-2023.

Research Infographic- Influence of Weather Conditions and Aerosol Properties on COVID-19 Contamination Rates

We are excited to share this new infographic on how weather can affect the spread of COVID-19. The work was published in Issue 1 of Environmental Science: Atmospheres. The article is Open Access and can be read at Speech-generated aerosol settling times and viral viability can improve COVID-19 transmission prediction

Alan Y. Gu, Yanzhe Zhu, Jing Li and Michael R. Hoffmann, Environ. Sci.: Atmos., 2022, 2, 34-45

Environmental Science: Atmospheres Editor Spotlight – Stephen Klippenstein

 

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

 

 

Transparency and openness at Environmental Science: Atmospheres

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.

Open for submissions: Themed collection on particle levitation to address challenges in atmospheric science

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: 30th September 2022

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

APCs are waived until mid-2023.

Open for submissions – A collection of articles on dense networks and low-cost sensors, including work presented at ASIC 2022

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: 30th November 2022

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

Environmental Science: Atmospheres Emerging Investigator Series: Kevin Wyche

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.

Submission Deadline Extended: Applications of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in Atmospheric Science themed collection

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.