What are the best journals for Atmospheric Science?

From a 17,500-venue index, the highest-ranked Atmospheric Science journals include Earth system science data, Nature Geoscience, Science Bulletin, Atmospheric chemistry and physics, Geoscientific model development. The top 40 of 131 ranked venues are listed on this page; all 40 are Scimago Q1. Each shows its open-access status and indexing, and predatory venues are excluded. For a shortlist matched to your specific paper, use the Journal Finder (15 credits; free account starts with 25).

How were these Atmospheric Science journals ranked?

By Scimago quartile first (Q1 → Q4, then venues without one). Within a quartile, venues whose main OpenAlex subfield is Atmospheric Science come before those that list it second or third, and ties go to OpenAlex cites/paper over a 2-year window. A venue whose main subfield is unrelated to Atmospheric Science — fewer than a quarter of the venues filed under that subfield (or fewer than five) are also filed under Atmospheric Science — is listed after all the others. Where cites/paper decides, a journal with fewer than 30 papers in OpenAlex over the four most recent publication years is listed after those with more: a two-year average over so few papers can rest on a single article (1 of the 131 journals ranked here is below that floor; it is not among the 40 shown). Cites/paper is a transparent citation rate, not a licensed Impact Factor, and journals flagged as predatory are excluded.

Why don't all Atmospheric Science journals show a quartile?

Scimago doesn't cover every journal — many strong regional and open-access venues are absent from it. We show "no Scimago quartile" for those rather than hide them; it's a coverage gap, not a quality judgement.

How do I find the best journal for my specific Atmospheric Science paper?

Paste your title and abstract into the Journal Finder — it returns a shortlist matched to your paper's topic from the same index, with acceptance-fit signals, open-access status, and predatory flags. A free account starts with 25 welcome credits; each run costs 15.

Atmospheric Science · 131 journals ranked · top 40 listed

Best journals for Atmospheric Science

The top 40 of 131 Atmospheric Science journals, ranked by Scimago quartile, then by how central Atmospheric Science is to each journal, then OpenAlex cites/paper (2-year window), drawn from a 17,500-venue index. Predatory venues are excluded; the FAQ below gives the exact ranking rule. These are field-wide rankings — for a shortlist matched to your specific paper, paste your title and abstract into the Journal Finder (a free account starts with 25 welcome credits).

Data as of 15 November 2026 — the date our venue index was last rebuilt from OpenAlex and Scimago.

Match journals to your paper →

All Best open-access journals

1
Earth system science data
13.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Copernicus Publications
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
2
Nature Geoscience
12.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Nature Portfolio
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
3
Science Bulletin
9.1 cites/paper · Q1
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
4
Atmospheric chemistry and physics
6.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Copernicus Publications
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
5
Geoscientific model development
5.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Copernicus Publications
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
6
The cryosphere
5.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Copernicus Publications
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
7
Atmospheric measurement techniques
5.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Copernicus Publications
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
8
Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
5.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
9
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
4.9 cites/paper · Q1 · American Meteorological Society
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
10
Geophysical Research Letters
4.8 cites/paper · Q1 · American Geophysical Union
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
11
Advances in Atmospheric Sciences
4.5 cites/paper · Q1 · Springer Science+Business Media
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
12
Climate of the past
4.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Copernicus Publications
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of Science
13
Permafrost and Periglacial Processes
4.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
14
Atmospheric Research
4.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
15
Geocarto International
4.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Taylor & Francis
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
16
Elementa Science of the Anthropocene
4.0 cites/paper · Q1 · BioOne
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
17
Cold Regions Science and Technology
3.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
18
Global and Planetary Change
3.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
19
Quaternary Geochronology
3.7 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
20
Atmospheric Environment
3.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
21
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society
3.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
22
Atmospheric Pollution Research
3.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMedTR-Dizin
23
Earth and Space Science
3.3 cites/paper · Q1 · American Geophysical Union
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
24
Quaternary Science Reviews
3.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
25
Journal of Aerosol Science
2.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
26
Acta Meteorologica Sinica
2.6 cites/paper · Q1
ScopusWeb of Science
27
Journal of Glaciology
2.4 cites/paper · Q1 · Cambridge University Press
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
28
Progress in Physical Geography Earth and Environment
2.4 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
29
Dendrochronologia
2.3 cites/paper · Q1 · Elsevier BV
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
30
Journal of Hydrometeorology
2.2 cites/paper · Q1 · American Meteorological Society
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
31
Boreas
2.2 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
32
Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology
2.1 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
33
The Holocene
2.1 cites/paper · Q1 · SAGE Publishing
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
34
Annals of Glaciology
2.0 cites/paper · Q1 · Cambridge University Press
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
35
Journal of Quaternary Science
1.8 cites/paper · Q1 · Wiley
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
36
Monthly Weather Review
1.8 cites/paper · Q1 · American Meteorological Society
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
37
Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
1.6 cites/paper · Q1 · American Meteorological Society
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
38
Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology
1.6 cites/paper · Q1 · American Meteorological Society
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
39
Quaternary Research
1.6 cites/paper · Q1 · Cambridge University Press
ScopusWeb of SciencePubMed
40
E&G Quaternary Science Journal
1.6 cites/paper · Q1
Open AccessDOAJScopusWeb of Science

“Cites/paper” is the OpenAlex 2-year citation rate — a transparent signal, not a licensed Impact Factor. Many regional and open-access journals are strong but aren’t covered by Scimago, so they show “no Scimago quartile”; that’s a coverage gap, not a quality judgement.