Tags: Debris, SCISAT, Upper Atmosphere, Global Warming
Publication: LATimes.com
Publication Date: 11/12/2012

Affected by changes in solar activity, the upper atmosphere contributes to weather and climate on Earth. Image credit: NASA/JPL/UCSD/JSC

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s Space Science Division released a study suggesting that climate change from greenhouse gas emissions might affect not only human life but also the machines that we have placed around Earth.

The study suggests that, unlike what happens closer to our planet’s surface, carbon emissions cause cooling instead of warming in the upper atmosphere, more than 50 miles above Earth’s surface. This cooling causes the atmosphere to contract, which could reduce drag on satellites and threatening the already unstable debris environment.

Quantifying increases in carbon dioxide so far away from Earth’s surface is a hard endeavor because typically used balloons can’t reach those heights. For the study, the research team used eight years worth of data from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer onboard the Canadian SCISAT-1 satellite to detect the surge of CO2 in the upper atmosphere.

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