Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (AAS), an international journal hosted by Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) and co-published by Springer and Science Press, recently presented its 2015 Esteemed Paper Prize to four papers published in 2013 in AAS for their exceptional contribution to the development of the journal. These four papers were selected based on their download statistics from SpringerLink and their ISI citations. They are: 

1.The Flexible Global Ocean-Atmosphere-Land system model, Spectral Version 2: FGOALS-s2 

　　Qing Bao*, Pengfei Lin, Tianjun Zhou, Yimin Liu, Yongqiang Yu, Guoxiong Wu, Bian He, Jie He, Lijuan Li, Jiandong Li, Yangchun Li, Hailong Liu, Fangli Qiao, Zhenya Song, Bin Wang, Jun Wang, Pengfei Wang, Xiaocong Wang, Zaizhi Wang, Bo Wu, Tongwen Wu, Yongfu Xu, Haiyang Yu, Wei Zhao, Weipeng Zheng, Linjiong Zhou

　　(http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00376-012-2113-9)

2.Enhancements of major aerosol components due to additional HONO sources in the North China Plain and implications for visibility and haze 

　　Junling An*, Ying Li, Yong Chen, Jian Li, Yu Qu, Yujia Tang

　　(http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00376-012-2016-9)

3.Poleward expansion of the Hadley Circulation in CMIP5 simulations 

　　Yongyun Hu*, Lijun Tao, and Jiping Liu

　　(http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00376-012-2187-4)

4.Revisiting the climatology of atmospheric blocking in the Northern Hemisphere 

　　Ho Nam Cheung, Wen Zhou*, Hing Yim Mok, Man Chi Wu, Yaping Shao

　　(http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00376-012-2006-y)

*Corresponding author

Congratulations to the authors of these Esteemed Papers! 

Generously supported by the host institute IAP and the project "Raising the International Impact of Science and Technology Journals published in China" initiated by Chinese Association of Science and Techology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and other sponsors, AAS has been making steady progress in raising its international profile. Working with Springer and using various social media, it has gained greater exposure and is attracting an increasing number of high-quality papers. Both the downloads from SpringerLink and the total citations have been significantly increasing in the past five years.