浏览英文书籍《Comparative Aeronomy》（Springer,2008）时得知，曾有气象学家认为meteorology不宜作为“大气科学”的学科名称，并在《Nature》发表文章《Some Thoughts on Nomenclature》另创一词aeronomy试图取而代之。

   关于Aeronomy的含义，《Atmospheres in the Solar System: Comparative Aeronomy》(2002)一书称：“While there is no universally accepted definition of the word, aeronomy, the American Heritage Dictionary defines it as "The study of the upper atmosphere, especially of regions of ionized gases". Sydney Chapman[1960] defined aeronomy as "the science of the upper region of the atmosphere, where dissocation and ionization are important". Aeronomy, from a historical perspective, is the science of atmospheric regions where dissociation and ionization are important factors in understanding composition and structure.”

   在《Comparative Aeronomy》序言中，Andrew F.Nagy指出：      

 The term “aeronomy” has been used widely for many decades, but its origin has mostly been lost over the years. It was introduced by Sydney Chapman in a Letter to the Editor, entitled “Some Thoughts on Nomenclature”, in Nature in 1946 (Chapman 1946). In that letter he suggested that aeronomy should replace meteorology, writing that the word “meteor is now irrelevant and misleading”. This proposal was apparently not received with much support so in a short note in Weather in 1953 Chapman (1953) wrote:

  “If, despite its obvious convenience of brevity in itself and its derivatives, it does not commend itself to aeronomers, I think there is a case for modifying my proposal so that instead of the word being used to signify the study of the atmosphere in general, it should be adopted with the restricted sense of the science of the upper atmosphere, for which there is no convenient short word.”

   In a chapter, he wrote in a 1960 book (Chapman 1960), he give his final and definitive definition, by stating that “Aeronomy is the science of the upper region of the atmosphere, where dissociation and ionization are important”.

   不过，S. CHAPMAN抛弃弃meteorology、将“Aeronomy”作为一般意义的“气象学”的倡议没有得到有效的响应，他转而将他创立的新词用于表示“高空大气学”，这种做法赢得了广泛的认可。

   说明一下，本人对于Aeronomy（高空大气学）并不了解，只是引用与介绍而已。

附：http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v157/n3987/abs/157405b0.html(注：因为仅能见到摘要，无法得知 S. CHAPMAN更细致的意见)

Letters to Editor

Nature 157, 405-405 (30 March 1946) | doi:10.1038/157405b0

                                Some Thoughts on Nomenclature

                                                                       S. CHAPMAN