Carbon Emissions Are Chilling The Atmosphere 90 Km Above Antarctica
The findings show Earth's upper atmosphere, in a region called the "mesosphere", is extremely sensitive to rising greenhouse gas concentrations. This provides a new opportunity to monitor how well government interventions to reduce emissions are working.
Our project also monitors the spectacular natural phenomenon known as "noctilucent" or "night shining" clouds. While beautiful, the more frequent occurrence of these clouds is considered a bad sign for climate change.
Rising greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to the temperature changes we recorded, but a number of other influences are also at play. These include the seasonal cycle (warmer in winter, colder in summer) and the Sun's 11-year activity cycle (which involves quieter and more intense solar periods) in the mesosphere.
One challenge of the research was untangling all these merged "signals" to work out the extent to which each was driving the changes we observed.
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