Ars Technica: The outer layer of Earth’s atmosphere, the thermosphere, contracts as it cools. When it contracts, satellites in orbit on the edge of it experience less drag and move more quickly. The phenomenon was widely noted in 2010 when cooling occurred due to the less active Sun, but the effect couldn’t fully explain the cooling. It was thought that carbon dioxide acted as a coolant in the thermosphere by absorbing energy from oxygen molecules and then radiating the energy out of the atmosphere as heat. An examination of data collected by the Canadian SCISAT-1 satellite showed that carbon dioxide concentrations in the thermosphere increased by 23.5 ± 6.3 ppm over the past decade. The increase is greater than expected and suggests that more mixing is occurring between the various layers of the atmosphere than was previously thought.
Daily Archives: November 14, 2012
National newspaper alleges “blinkered Republican opposition” to climate action
Washington Post: An editorial calls climate change “perhaps the most neglected big issue of the 2012 campaign,” asks for “more aggressive policymaking” about it in President Obama’s second term, and charges that House speaker John Boehner now “appear[s] to mischaracterize the scientific debate on global warming.” Boehner reportedly said, “I don’t think there’s any doubt that we’ve had climate change over the last 100 years. What has initiated it, though, has sparked a debate that’s gone on now for the last 10 years.” The editorial reviews “the basic physical principles on which the scientific consensus is based”; cites a recent study showing that in Boehner’s “‘last 10 years’ alone, the models and the quality of the information that feeds into them have gotten progressively better”; and stipulates that, yes, uncertainties are involved. But it urges Boehner nevertheless “to stand up for the climate researchers and push Washington’s policy deliberations into accord with the science.”