The State of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Cloud Physics Community

Abstract. The Geosciences are amongst the least diverse research fields, where women and other underrepresented 19 groups face systemic biases. This paper presents the state of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the cloud-physics community, by combining a metadata analysis of 6987 cloud-physics peer-reviewed journal articles published between 1970 and 2020 with responses from a survey of 198 participants from the cloud-physics community. Women first author contributions are evident only after 1997 and presently only ∼17 % of studies in the cloud physics field are led by women. Authors from the Global North dominate first and corresponding-author positions, with only ∼5 % of studies led by tropical affiliation authors. The latter’s participation was low even for study sites in the tropics, suggesting widespread practice of parachute science. Of the survey respondents, 23 % identified as a minority group and feel that being a minority has had a negative impact on their scientific career, in terms of collaborations, promotions, publishing, funding, salary, and citations. Although the survey data shows the general experiences of cloud physicists globally, the perspectives from this work can aid the cloud-physics community to develop strategies to improve DEI in institutions beyond a business case for a diverse science community. Rather we should consider an equity-centered approach by understanding our ethical responsibilities to benefit research of the climate system.