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The Sky Is Rising
Makarand writes "The height of the tropopause, the boundary layer between the troposphere and stratosphere and the roof of the Earth's lower atmosphere, has risen by an average of around 650 feet globally over the last 22 years according to this
article in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Greenhouse gases trap infrared radiation and warm the troposphere. The resulting tropospheric expansion is moving the tropopause upward. Also, the ozone depleted stratosphere
is losing its ability to absorb sunlight causing it to cool and contract pulling the
tropopause upward."
OMG, we'll all be exploded instead of smashed!
Repeal the DMCA!
I can just imagine Chicken Little running around with a little yo-yo going "THE SKY IS RISING! THE SKY IS RISING!" :P
"Black holes are where God divided by zero." - Steve Wright
What goes up must come down. The sky is going to fall on our heads!
Wouldn't this also have an effect on hail, lightning and snow flakes? If these items are affected by travel within the storm, wouldn't a larger area of vertical travel cause hail to be more likely, lightning to be stronger (more convection space) and snow flakes to be larger?
All our weather happens in the tropopause yes, but doesn't it extend down into the troposphere where it hits the earth making the troposphere that much larger?
Also, if the tropopause is rising, does that mean the stratosphere is shrinking or rising? Is the whole atmosphere being pushed out? Is the jet stream rising with it?
Suppose this could mean higher expenses for air carriers, as they would need to climb to higher altitudes to get to the calmer stratosphere?
This is to be expected. Imagine the atmosphere as a balloon. If you heat it, it will expand. And not only that, but it's surface area will stretch and become thinner. Now imagine that the surface area of the balloon is the earth's ozone. There is only so much to spread around, and it becomes thinner and thinner. In the case of the balloon, it will pop of course, in the case of the atmosphere, it will re-organize itself in whatever state the laws of phsyics decide it should be organized. I.E, the ozone "hole". My point here is that the ozone "hole" can exist not just because of CFCs, but also because of Global Warming.
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
A more likely explanation, this is all a result of white people doing that "raise the roof" move.
try to remember we're just coming out of a frickin' ice age. The earth's temperature fluctuates, and not necessarily because of humans.
So this is why the clouds are red sometimes: It's the red shift on the light from the clouds, resulting from the expanding sky!
And sometimes the sky is red because it reflects the light from the tomatina festival.
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
Hmm.. wonder how much effect this could have on satellites in low earth orbit.
:)
From what I've read they already experience enough drag from the extreme edge of the atmosphere that there orbit needs boosting every so often (eg. the ISS).
Could this mean more boosts are needed? (decreasing the life of the satellite, or in the case of the ISS - making it more expensive to keep up there).
Maybe the first time global warming has caused an effect outside of the planet.
What is the definition by which they measure its height? The article doesn't say.
If we were ants living on a Rubik's cube, differential geometry would be a little more confusing.
It's interesting. Back in the days when I was obsessed with Sim Earth, I remember watching carefully how mass extinctions started. They weren't caused by any immediate disaster like a comet impact or volcano. Most extinctions started when the oxygen level of the planet started diving just a little bit. That set in motion a feedback loop of some kind that drove the oxygen in the atmosphere to zero fairly quickly, leaving nothing alive but trees and some sea animals. It was a difficult process to recognize, and even harder to stop.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
I don't mind a taller breathable atmosphere (will this ease the plight of those who go to high altitudes?) but skin cancer is no joke. I wonder if anybody's run the numbers on how much extra ozone is required to statistically eliminate one skin cancer case? Furthermore, how much would it cost to launch ozone generators (solar/fuel cell powered) into the stratosphere to just replenish the stuff.
Now there would be a worthy effort for a green group to take up. Too bad the mostly seem to be to busy protesting to actually solve problems.
Comparing the processes of the human body and the processes of the Eearth's climate is completely USELESS.
Not that we have perfect understanding of the human body, but our understanding of the earth's climate is to say the least a very undeveloped science.
So now Santer Claus and his elves are into global weather modeling, interesting.
However, the stratosphere also radiatively cools for enhanced CO2 levels.
As described in the 'Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 1998' by the World Meteorological Organization, "an increase in greenhouse gas concentration enhances the thermal infrared emissivity of a layer in the stratosphere; hence, if the radiation absorbed by this layer remains fixed and other factors remain the same, then, to achieve equilibrium, the same amount of energy has to be emitted at a lower temperature and the layer cools."
Um, the tempurature of the air above another layer of air does not contract or pull air below it up or down. The stratosphere's weight would be the same causing the same amount of force to be exerted on the tropopause. The tropopause's height is only effected by 1) its own temperature and 2) the compression force of whats above it.
..is largely a matter of labelling.
SimEarth may be a very crude simulation compared to stuff NOAA runs, but it does demonstrate an effect. The utility is limited. But limited utility is not uselessness.
I might have jumped the gun. The pressure would remain the same at sea level but there would be a redistribution in atmosperic density vs. altitude. On a mountain, with some of the atmosphere having moved from below one's feet to over one's head, the pressure would be higher, but not enough to notice.
"I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
Regardless of whatever conclusions are derived from weather calculations I believe they are fundamentally flawed. Based on past performances and predictions, we don't have a clue about what is going on.
On a somewhat related matter, I used to date a Weather Chick and she was as unpredictable as the weather but she had piss-flaps as big as saddlebags!
But ultimately, the ozone hole occurs at the south pole for two specific reasons: First, the poles get a lot less radiation that the rest of the earth, hence less ozone production there. Second, the air currents over antarctica serve to trap the CFC's and ozone there DURING WINTER, allowing the CFC's to devour the ozone without it being able to re-mix with the rest of the atmosphere.
Note that this year the ozone hole actually shrank and split in half, due to a change in the weather patterns over antarctica. So I would be extremely hesitant to use a baloon analogy to explain the ozone hole - atmospheric chemistry is so hideously complicated.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat