Climate change is having an increasing impact on the structure of Earth’s atmosphere, a new international study shows.
Climate change is having an increasing impact on the structure of Earth’s atmosphere, a new international study shows.
The research, published in Science Advances, draws on decades of weather balloon observations and specialized satellite measurements to quantify the extent to which the top of the lowest level of the atmosphere is rising. That region, the tropopause, is pushing up the boundary with the stratosphere by about 50-60 meters (about 165-195 feet) per decade.
The rising is caused by warming temperatures near Earth's surface that are causing the lower atmosphere to expand.
“This is an unambiguous sign of changing atmospheric structure,” said Bill Randel, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and co-author of the new study. “These results provide independent confirmation, in addition to all the other evidence of climate change, that greenhouse gases are altering our atmosphere.”
Read more at National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Photo Credit: geralt via Pixabay
