--- name: journal-of-geophysical-research-atmospheres description: Use when targeting Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres (JGR-Atmospheres) or deciding whether a full-length atmospheric-science manuscript fits this AGU venue. Encodes the journal's fit, framing, method-and-evidence bar, house style, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics. --- # Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres (journal-of-geophysical-research-atmospheres) ## Journal positioning Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres is the American Geophysical Union (AGU) flagship for full-length atmospheric science, published by Wiley. It is the disciplinary journal of record for substantial, complete studies of the atmosphere — composition and chemistry, aerosols, clouds and precipitation, dynamics, radiation and energy budgets, boundary-layer and convective processes, and atmosphere-surface exchange. Its defining character is depth over brevity: JGR-Atmospheres expects a thorough analysis with full methods, comprehensive validation, and a complete treatment of uncertainty, addressed to the specialist atmospheric-science community rather than a broad readership. Work is judged on whether it advances mechanistic or quantitative understanding of an atmospheric process and stands as a definitive contribution, not on novelty headlines. This skill is a **fit / venue-selection / re-framing** tool. It does not replace the journal's current official submission guidelines. Before submitting, re-check the live author instructions on the AGU/Wiley JGR-Atmospheres site. ## When to trigger - The author names JGR-Atmospheres as the target for a complete, full-length atmospheric-science study. - A manuscript reports observations, modeling, or analysis of atmospheric composition, aerosols, clouds, dynamics, or radiation with enough depth to need full methods and validation, and the author is choosing between JGR-Atmospheres and Geophysical Research Letters or Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. - A finding is too detailed and method-heavy for a short-format letter but is a self-contained disciplinary advance. - The author needs JGR-Atmospheres' depth, validation, and data-policy requirements, plus desk-reject criteria, before submission. ## Scope & topic fit - Atmospheric composition and chemistry: trace gases, oxidants, reactive nitrogen, ozone budgets, and chemistry-transport modeling tested against observations. - Aerosols: microphysics, optical properties, sources and sinks, aerosol-radiation and aerosol-cloud interactions, and remote-sensing or in-situ characterization. - Clouds and precipitation: cloud microphysics, convection, precipitation processes, and parameterization development evaluated against measurements. - Dynamics and circulation: boundary-layer processes, gravity waves, stratosphere-troposphere exchange, transport, and regional-to-global circulation studies. - Radiation and energy budgets: radiative transfer, surface-atmosphere energy exchange, and forcing/feedback quantification. - Observational and methodological advances: new instruments, retrieval algorithms, or field-campaign analyses that deliver a quantitative atmospheric result. ## Method & evidence bar - The study must be complete: full methods, comprehensive validation against independent observations or established models, and an explicit, quantitative uncertainty treatment. - Model studies require evaluation against measurements and a clear account of sensitivity to key parameters and assumptions; observation studies require error characterization and representativeness discussion. - Claims must be supported at the level of mechanism or budget, not correlation alone; statistical significance and physical interpretation must both be addressed. - Instrument and retrieval papers must document calibration, validation, and uncertainty propagation. - Data and code must be deposited in an AGU-compliant FAIR repository (e.g., Zenodo, PANGAEA, or a domain archive) with persistent identifiers; AGU enforces data availability at acceptance. - Reanalysis or satellite-product use must justify suitability and document version and processing level. ## Structure & house style - JGR-Atmospheres uses a standard full-length structure: Abstract, Plain Language Summary, Introduction, Data/Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, with full references. - A Plain Language Summary is required in addition to the technical abstract; it must be jargon-free and accessible to non-specialists. - Length is generous relative to letters; the expectation is completeness rather than compression, but every section must earn its space. - Figures should be publication-quality, quantitative, and individually informative; supporting figures and extended analyses go to Supporting Information. - Methods must be reproducible in the main text or SI; model configurations, versions, and forcing datasets must be specified. - An Open Research (data availability) statement is mandatory and must list every dataset and code resource with repository and identifier. ## Official-submission checklist - Before giving submission-ready advice, read `../../resources/source-basis.md` and `../../resources/official-source-map.md`; start from the official source anchors for this journal family, then cite the current journal-specific page you checked. - Search the live site for "JGR Atmospheres author guidelines" and follow the current AGU/Wiley version. - Re-check article-type definitions, length expectations, and the Plain Language Summary requirement. - Re-check AGU's Open Research / data-and-software availability policy; confirm accepted FAIR repositories and the at-acceptance enforcement. - Re-check competing-interests, funding, authorship (CRediT), and AI-use disclosure requirements; confirm preprint policy (ESSOAr/preprint posting is generally compatible). - If the live official instructions conflict with this skill, the official instructions win. ## Pre-submission self-check - [ ] One sentence — the atmospheric process advanced and the quantitative result that defines the contribution. - [ ] Methods, model configuration, and datasets are fully specified and reproducible from the paper plus SI. - [ ] Validation against independent observations or established models is included, with explicit uncertainty quantification. - [ ] A jargon-free Plain Language Summary is written and accurate. - [ ] Data and code are deposited in a FAIR repository with persistent identifiers; the Open Research statement is complete. - [ ] The paper is positioned against recent JGR-Atmospheres / ACP literature on this process. ## Common desk-reject triggers - A short, single-result finding better suited to a letter, submitted without the depth and validation a full-length study requires. - A modeling study with no evaluation against observations and no sensitivity analysis. - A descriptive case study or campaign report without a generalizable atmospheric result or mechanistic interpretation. - Missing or non-compliant Open Research / data-availability statement, or data in a non-persistent location. - A retrieval or instrument paper lacking calibration, validation, and uncertainty propagation. ## Re-routing decision - Short, high-impact, broad-interest atmospheric finding needing rapid publication: `geophysical-research-letters`. - Atmospheric-chemistry-focused study, or work suited to interactive open peer review: `atmospheric-chemistry-and-physics`. - Broad cross-disciplinary geoscience significance beyond atmospheres: Nature Geoscience or a high-impact generalist venue. - Climate-system or Earth-system-futures framing rather than process atmospheric science: `earths-future`. ## Output format ```text [Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason) [Target] JGR: Atmospheres [Topic tags] <2–3 closest topics> [Method/evidence] [Top risk] [Official items to re-check] [Re-route suggestion] ```