Earth's Upper Atmosphere Collapses - Nobody Knows Why
Thursday 15 July 2010
by: SPACE | The Christian Science Monitor
The thermosphere recently collapsed in an unexpectedly large contraction, the sheer size of which has scientists scratching their heads.
An upper layer of Earth's atmosphere recently collapsed in an unexpectedly large contraction, the sheer size of which has scientists scratching their heads, NASA announced Thursday.
The layer of gas – called the thermosphere – is now rebounding again. This type of collapse is not rare, but its magnitude shocked scientists.
"This is the biggest contraction of the thermosphere in at least 43 years," said John Emmert of the Naval Research Lab, lead author of a paper announcing the finding in the June 19 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters. "It's a Space Age record."
The collapse occurred during a period of relative solar inactivity – called a solar minimum from 2008 to 2009. These minimums are known to cool and contract the thermosphere, however, the recent collapse was two to three times greater than low solar activity could explain.
"Something is going on that we do not understand," Emmert said.
The thermosphere lies high above the Earth's surface, close to where our planet meets the edge of space. It ranges in altitude from 55 miles (90 km) to 370 miles (600 km) above the ground. At this height, satellites and meteors fly and auroras shine. [Graphic: Earth's Atmosphere Top to Bottom]
The thermosphere interacts strongly with the sun, so is very affected by periods of high or low solar activity. This layer intercepts extreme ultraviolet light (EUV) from the sun before it can reach the ground.
When solar activity is high, solar EUV warms the thermosphere, causing it to puff up like a marshmallow held over a camp fire. When solar activity is low, the opposite occurs.
Recently, solar activity has been at an extreme low. In 2008 and 2009, sunspots were scarce, solar flares almost non-existent, and solar EUV radiation was at a low ebb.
Still, the thermospheric collapse of 2008-2009 was not only bigger than any previous collapse, it was also bigger than the sun's activity alone could explain.
To calculate the collapse, Emmert analyzed the decay rates of more than 5,000 satellites orbiting above Earth between 1967 and 2010. This provided a space-time sampling of thermospheric density, temperature, and pressure covering almost the entire Space Age.
Emmert suggests carbon dioxide (CO2) in the thermosphere might play a role in explaining the atmospheric collapse.
This gas acts as a coolant, shedding heat via infrared radiation. It is widely-known that CO2 levels have been increasing in Earth's atmosphere. Extra CO2 in the thermosphere could have magnified the cooling action of solar minimum.
"But the numbers don't quite add up," Emmert said. "Even when we take CO2 into account using our best understanding of how it operates as a coolant, we cannot fully explain the thermosphere's collapse."
The researchers hope further monitoring of the upper atmosphere will help them get to the bottom of the situation.
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Comments
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Can someone precisely define
Sun, 07/18/2010 - 20:49 β pv (not verified)Can someone precisely define the term "collapse" in this context?
I can hear the
Sun, 07/18/2010 - 21:01 β Lyris (not verified)I can hear the teabagging/gop now denying any such thing happened.
We have met the enemy, and
Sun, 07/18/2010 - 22:11 β billnbillieskid (not verified)We have met the enemy, and he is US. As long as the regressive Republicans in Washington refuse to recognize Scientific Fact we are doomed to an early demise. They live in the moment with no vision for the future, their CHILDREN'S future. So sad. It makes me grateful, for once, to be childless.
Has anyone considered
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 00:16 β Anonymous (not verified)Has anyone considered HAARP?
If you do not what the term means, google it.
As a previous poster
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 00:48 β Anonymous (not verified)As a previous poster mentioned, look to HAARP. They have been trying to create bubble or lens in the atmosphere that would expand over a certain area then do exactly that - collapse. Seems they've attained their goal.
HAARP would most definitely
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 01:02 β Smedley Butler (not verified)HAARP would most definitely explain this, the "idea" behind HAARP is to "blister" the Ionosphere..to create a "lens" to magnitify the amplitude , focus and concentration of the beams been blasted from Gakona Alaska...so this just might be the "unintended consequence"
I always knew that "playing God" , especially this HAARP thing...was and is an act of sheer insanity..right out of DR Strangelove..God Help us all.
This is your thermosphere on
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 06:35 β Anonymous (not verified)This is your thermosphere on HAARP....
when He wishes to speak to
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 15:16 β Perivail (not verified)when He wishes to speak to man God first whispers, then, if man does not listen, He throws stones...
Might there have been some
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 15:21 β forrest curo (not verified)Might there have been some change in the chemical composition of the upper atmosphere, affecting how much rarified stuff is available to form that layer--& how well it adsorbs the radiation that heats it? Extremely light molecules (methane?) should collect disproportionately thereabouts, and a little bit of you-name-it could potentially make big differences...
Interesting is the fact that
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 16:41 β Robert Uttaro (not verified)Interesting is the fact that there has been much less solar activity in 2008 and 2009. Why this is an interesting fact is that many of the climate change skeptics pointed to the increase in solar activity in the past two decades to ground their assertions that climate change due to human activity was a hoax and best explained by the sun's activity. Now we see that at the same time the sun has been on vacation the last two years were still record tears in global warming. Do you think the deniers can reconcile this apparent refutation of their argument? I can see them grabbing at straws pointing to the "cooling" CO2 has on the thermosphere as another way to conjure up bogus science.
Actually, counter to what
Mon, 07/19/2010 - 19:46 β Anonymous (not verified)Actually, counter to what was posted previously, we are now in an accelerated period of sunspot activity that will culminate in 2012. This will be the most intense period of sunspots since we began to look at the sun and record its changes, the 16oo's. Its possible for most (90%) of all satellite to be burned out by the radiation produced by these sun storms. (spots). Almost all civilian satellites are not "shielded" against excessive radiation. We could loose all cell phone capabilities and TV transmissions. As well, the military which piggybacks coded transmissions on many civilian satellites could loose its communication capabilities. This excess radiation will be responsible for a huge increase in skin cancers as well. At the same time the electromagnetic shield the earth has which protects us from most of the sun's harmful radiation is weakening at a rate never seen before and will intensify the problem.
"Something is going on that
Tue, 07/20/2010 - 00:39 β Anonymous (not verified)"Something is going on that we do not understand," Emmert said. WOW! Must be the end of the earth!
While I believe in and think I understand global climate change and the general destruction of a lot of our environment by greedy corporations, etc. (Ph.D., chemistry), I find it amusing, and kind of scary, that people hysterically project ignorance when presented with "scientific" data. Please, go to the original, primary research, read it, understand its scope. Then make hypotheses, not "facts", about cause and effect. Unfortunately, not all scientists are good scientists, some are actually incompetent just like in any other profession.
anon@00:39 - you may be one
Tue, 07/20/2010 - 02:10 β Anonymous (not verified)anon@00:39 - you may be one of the incompetent.
the earth is a living body
Tue, 07/20/2010 - 15:24 β Anonymous (not verified)the earth is a living body where slow but important changes occur. It had a start and it will have an end. Nobody knows how and when. Pollution and natural resources depletion are changing the face of the earth in a dramatic way. However, the rotation of the magnetic field will have the most decisive effects: i.e., one day the sun could rise from the West without big changes in the earth counterclockwise rotation speed but with a dramatic change of its plane of orbit (position of rotation axis)
Imso grateful that my wife
Tue, 07/20/2010 - 20:04 β Anonymous (not verified)Imso grateful that my wife and I don't have any children nor will have in the future. Technology will look great in the future but environment, fucking forget about it.
It needs to be explained why
Tue, 07/20/2010 - 23:13 β Anonymous (not verified)It needs to be explained why a 'coolant' gas, carbon dioxide, is the cause of the theory of 'global warming' and why such gas that settles to the lowest point is even found in the upper atmosphere
While our leaders use our
Wed, 07/21/2010 - 01:23 β Anonymous (not verified)While our leaders use our resources: mental, material and financial to find more exotic ways to destroy the "enemy" without losing our own troops (drone bombers, for instance), mysteries are occurring in our atmosphere that should be receiving these resources. In last winter's snowy cold, the climate-change deniers kept demanding to know what happened to global warming--rather like declaring "Bring it on" to prove its existence. Now that we have had three severe heat waves here in the northeast, their voices have been stilled by reality. Still it is past time that our leaders end the waste of war and start expanding renewable energy to protect our planet.
Could it be... SATAN?! (OK..
Wed, 07/21/2010 - 03:45 β Anonymous (not verified)Could it be... SATAN?! (OK.. Church Lady's 90's joke LOL)
"Collapse" defined: the size
Wed, 07/21/2010 - 18:37 β gerold (not verified)"Collapse" defined:
the size of the thermosphere is directly related to its temperature. Gravity tries to pull the gas molecules back down to earth, but the hotter they are, the higher they fly. That's because temperature is just a measure of the kinetic energy of the gas. The higher the temperature, the faster those molecules are moving, meaning they stay higher in the thermosphere.
Apparently the thermosphere is heated primarily with UV radiation, so times of low sunspot and solar flare activity (meaning less UV emissions) result in a cooler thermosphere. When it's cooler, it contracts. ("Collapse" seems like a pretty sensationalist description; "contraction" would be more accurate.)
We need to talk about
Wed, 07/21/2010 - 18:42 β jsh (not verified)We need to talk about climate change - not global warming! Nothing will silence all of the deniers, but it makes more sense to those paying even a little bit of attention.
Dear jsh: No, we do need to
Tue, 07/27/2010 - 20:33 β Frances in California (not verified)Dear jsh: No, we do need to talk about global warming, AND climate change, AND loss of habitat, AND the food chain, AND the privatization of water, AND . . .