Space Junk and Global Warming.

"In a paper published February 5 in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Space Physics, John Emmert, Michael Picone, Judith Lean, and Stephen Knowles report that the average density of the thermosphere has decreased by about 10 percent during the past 35 years."

In their report they cite the effects of Global Warming for the decrease in the density of the Thermosphere. CO2 has a cooling effect on the upper atmosphere and pulls the Thermosphere in towards the planet. NASA depends upon the properties of the upper atmosphere when they want to rid the obrits of space junk. Rockets shed their boosters in the upper atmosphere at an altitude that assures they return to earth and don't fall into an uncontrolled orbit...wreaking havoc on satelites. The news that the Thermosphere is being pulled in towards the planet has mix implications, for one the 24 Global Positioning System satelites lay in a low orbit and their life cycle will be prolonged by a less dense Thermosphere, however, there may be more space junk to contend with as fewer items fall victim to Earth's gravity.



Another interesting component of this report is that the CO2 that traps infrared radiation in the Troposphere also reflects it away from the Earth in the Thermosphere. So, while the Troposphere increases in temperature, the Thermosphere decreases in temperature.

Below are a couple of graphs that show how infrared radiation is reflected back into space, but they don't take into account the radiation that is reflected in the upper atmosphere by CO2...these graphs were created to demonstrate the effects of CO2 on Global Warming. (Click on graphs to enlarge)

Wouldn't it be interesting to assume that with more radiation being reflected away in the upper atmosphere that there would be less to trap in the lower atmosphere? Negating the effects that has everyone worried that Global Warming is going to destroy our planet.