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Greenhouse gases shrinking the stratosphere, a new study finds

A new study which was published in the journal of Environmental Research Letters has found that the release of large amounts of greenhouse gases is the cause of the thinning thickness of the stratosphere. The stratosphere has thinned by 400 metres since the 1980s and will thin by about another kilometre by 2080 if there are no efforts to reduce emissions.

The stratosphere is an atmospheric layer that extends from about 20km to 60km above the Earth’s surface. The stratosphere is above the troposphere where humans live. Carbon dioxide heats and expands the air which pushes up the lower boundary of the stratosphere as the stratosphere contracts to cool the air when carbon dioxide enters it.

Juan Añel, from the University of Vigo, Ourense in Spain who was part of the research team said that this phenomenon indicates a climate emergency and that mankind's influence is messing with the atmosphere up to 60 kilometers from the earth's surface.

The researchers said that the thinning of the stratosphere would affect satellite trajectories, orbital lifetimes, and retrievals, the propagation of radio waves, the GPS navigation system, radio communications and other space-based navigational systems.

This research has brought about several revelations. Firstly, although scientists were aware of the contracting troposphere and the resultant shrinking of the stratosphere due to the release of carbon dioxide, the new study is the first to demonstrate this effect and shows the contraction around the globe from the 80s. Secondly, scientists had thought that the losses of ozone layers that absorb UV rays from the sun which is located within the stratosphere caused the shrinking of the stratosphere. However, the research proofs that the rise of carbon dioxide is behind the increased contraction of the stratosphere and not the ozone levels. The ozone levels have started to recover after the 1989 Montreal treaty which banned CFCs. The study reached these conclusions using the small set of satellite observations taken since the 1980s in combination with multiple climate models, which included the complex chemical interactions that occur in the atmosphere.

Prof Paul Williams, at the University of Reading in the UK, who was not part of this research remarked that the upper atmosphere which is an important part of the atmosphere has been poorly studied. However, he added that this study finds the first observational evidence of stratosphere contraction and shows that the real cause was mankind’s greenhouse gas emissions rather than ozone depletion.

The increase of harmful human activities on earth has led scientists to recommend a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. Markers of the Anthropocene are radioactive elements scattered by nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s, domestic chicken bones due to the increase in poultry production post the second world war and widespread plastic pollution.