We expand the affine Weyl denominator formulas as signed $q$-series of ordinary Weyl characters running over the affine Grassmannian. Here the grading in $q$ coincides with the (dual) atomic length of the root system considered as introduced by Chapelier-Laget and Gerber. Next, we give simple expressions of the atomic lengths in terms of self-conjugate core partitions.\ This permits in particular to rederive, from the general theory of affine root systems, some results of the second author obtained by case-by-case computations on determinants and the use of particular families of strict partitions. These families are proved to be in simple one-to-one correspondences with the previous core partition model and, through this correspondence, the atomic length on cores equates the rank of the strict partitions considered. Finally, we make explicit some interactions between the affine Grassmannian elements and the Nekrasov-Okounkov type formulas.