Atmospheric and Space Scientists

Low Risk
31%

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Vote Comments (8)
AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
23%
(Low Risk)
POLLING
40%
(Low Risk, Based on 176 votes)
Average: 31%
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
5.6%
by year 2033
WAGES
$92,860
or $44.64 per hour
Volume
9,310
as of 2023
SUMMARY
What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
6.4/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

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Calculated automation risk

23% (Low Risk)

Low Risk (21-40%): Jobs in this level have a limited risk of automation, as they demand a mix of technical and human-centric skills.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Some quite important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Social Perceptiveness

  • Originality

  • Persuasion

  • Negotiation

User poll

40% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 23% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Atmospheric and Space Scientists will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

The following graph is shown where there are enough votes to produce meaningful data. It displays user poll results over time, providing a clear indication of sentiment trends.

Sentiment over time (yearly)

Growth

Fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Atmospheric and Space Scientists' job openings is expected to rise 5.6% by 2033

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Wages

Very high paid relative to other professions

In 2023, the median annual wage for 'Atmospheric and Space Scientists' was 92.860 $, or 45 $ per hour

'Atmospheric and Space Scientists' were paid 93.2% higher than the national median wage, which stood at 48.060 $

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Significantly lower range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2023 there were 9,310 people employed as 'Atmospheric and Space Scientists' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 16 thousand people are employed as 'Atmospheric and Space Scientists'.

Job description

Investigate atmospheric phenomena and interpret meteorological data, gathered by surface and air stations, satellites, and radar to prepare reports and forecasts for public and other uses. Includes weather analysts and forecasters whose functions require the detailed knowledge of meteorology.

SOC Code: 19-2021.00

Comments (8)

Leave a comment
Silva
23 Jul 2025 19:54
AI has been in use for the whole atmospheric and space science sector for a long time. It won't fully replace human input because humans still need to correct errors and also make models and research. However, some parts, like TV meteorologists, will probably be replaced as people rely more and more on digital technology without the need to watch the news.
oddguy (No chance)
01 Jul 2025 11:13
Society need people educated in the field.
whetherweather101 (Moderate)
08 May 2024 12:05
AI will soon (and already is) predicting weather as or more accurately than human forecasters.
Thomas (Highly likely)
01 Dec 2022 22:56
I went to school for this. I think that computer processing power will increase over the years. When this happens, the grid cells of the model will become smaller (look up climate modeling). This has happened for decades now. Eventually, the grid cells of the model become so small that the errors in model forecasts will decrease leaving no need for humans to fix them. This doesn't apply to research scientists.
atmospheric scientist contractor person (Uncertain)
06 Jan 2022 15:20
There are many areas where AI could replace the work of scientists, but the adoption of new technology often lags behind what is seen in industry. This is partly due to the fact that this field is driven by government funding, which is often allocated inefficiently compared to the private sector. In addition, scientist salaries are low and require extensive schooling (Master's/PhD), so change is happening very slowly.
Mike (No chance)
21 Jan 2021 04:23
There is a difference between weather forecaster (already replaced) and atmospheric/space science.
Chris (Moderate)
23 Oct 2019 16:16
At least the weather forecasting side, automation has already taken over the job. Models are getting so much better and in the next decade it will likely be unnecessary to 'forecast' in the traditional sense.
Nicholas
12 Aug 2019 20:07
Forecasting is only a tiny part of what atmospheric and space scientist do. As space scientist I do not work with forecasting at all. Then given the poor amount of data, the result is also very poor.
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