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Shuttle Launches Form Arctic Clouds

Posted by michael on from the rainmaker dept.

core plexus writes "The Anchorage Daily News is reporting that in late May, researchers reported finding that the shuttle's exhaust, 97 percent of which is water vapor, quickly migrates to the highest reaches of the atmosphere above the Arctic. There the vapor spreads out about 50 miles high in Earth's mesosphere, just below the thermosphere, the air's highest layer, and settles to form a wispy type of cloud called noctilucent clouds. The shuttle trails a giant plume of exhaust while rising through the atmosphere, Mike Stevens, the study's lead author, said earlier this summer on Arctic Science Journeys Radio at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. "You can think of it as essentially a long garden hose that is on the order of (621 miles) long," Stevens said."

4 of 31 comments (clear)

  1. What am I to say? by Lacertus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is yet another example emphasizing the fact that every human motive, thought, and action is thereby reflected in our environment. While many 'environmentalists' will spew forth their rightful sentiments that such action-reaction describes the final, tragic fate of humanity, I have another view: While it can't go without saying that all our technology effects our environment, similarly it should be evident that what we do (as rightful animals of Earth) might very well be incorporated in a new Earthly paradigm of that which is "natural."

    1. Re:What am I to say? by tha_mink · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "While it can't go without saying that all our technology effects our environment, similarly it should be evident that what we do (as rightful animals of Earth) might very well be incorporated in a new Earthly paradigm of that which is "natural.""

      My thoughts exactly. Like a beaver and his dam, we are just as natural. (yes, beavers destroy ecosystems too)

      --
      You'll have that sometimes...
  2. Re:what about other spacecraft? by srn_test · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think it's also that the shuttle is a much heavier lift vehicle than either the Russians or ESA use, thus it burns a lot more fuel.

  3. Re:what about other spacecraft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Because the shuttle's main engines are liquid-hydrogen fueled, so their primary byproduct is water vapor.

    Rockets that use other fuels (e.g. petroleum products, such as the kerosenes we liked to use during the Apollo days) produce other byproducts.