Climate change shrinks our atmosphere with unexpected consequences

Climate change is not only causing hot waves now, but in the end it can cause a pile of garbage spaces in low earth orbit, NASA warns, with almost three decades of data showing our atmospheric vital layer shrinking because of emissions of greenhouse gases. The increase in carbon dioxide has caused the upper atmosphere to gradually contract, with new research placing numbers on the change for the first time. 

The area that is a concern is the mesosphere, about 30 to 50 miles above the surface of the planet. When carbon dioxide emissions continue, the layer is cooling and thus contracting.

Scientists have realized this as a concept for some time, but only by analyzing 29 years of data in three different satellites which are the extent to which shrinkage can be counted. In a new study published in the Journal of Atmospheric and Surya-Terrestrial Physics, Virginia Tech Atmospheric Scott Bailey scientist and his team worked because cooling 4-5 degrees Fahrenheit every decade.

Which managed to become 500 to 650 feet contraction during the same period. “Because carbon dioxide is also efficiently emitting heat, every heat captured by carbon dioxide is faster to escape to the room rather than finding other molecules to absorb it,” NASA explained. “As a result, the increase in greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide means more heat lost into space – and the upper atmosphere cools. When air cools, it contracts, in the same way to make a balloon shrink if you put it in the freezer.”

Mesosphere did not directly affect what happened on the surface of the earth, NASA said, but it was not to say the outer edge of the atmosphere of our planet was not important for the things we considered trivial. One big potential problem is that atmospheric gas at that level plays an important role in what is known as satellite barriers: friction that acts against satellites and other objects in low earth orbit.

On the one hand, satellite obstacles are a problem. For objects that we want to stay in orbit – such as telecommunications satellites such as SpaceX’s Starlink – we need to make sure their orbits are constantly tweaking to keep them pulling from orbit by friction. But the flip side is that satellite obstacles also help clean the garbage space and detritus out of the road, disturb the orbits and encourage it to burn the reset.

“As atmospheric contracts, satellite obstacles may be reduced,” NASA predicts, “annoying fewer with satellites operating, but also leaving more garbage spaces in low earth orbits.”

There are no worries, of course, about how many garbage builds in orbit around the earth. All satellites, and further research platforms such as international space stations, need to have a mechanism that they can avoid calls close to the passing room junk. Unintentional collisions can be enough to destroy the solar panel or send a spinning satellite to re-re-premature.

While the rate of contraction is relatively slow, it seems consistent considering the current level of carbon dioxide emissions. The goal now is to continue to track the depreciation of the atmosphere, in the midst of efforts on the ground to try to curb greenhouse gases.