Anxiety, shrinking layers of the atmosphere

The above according to researcher from the University of Vigo, Spain, Juan A. Anil Cabanellas, when participating in the conference cycle “Current Panorama of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate Change”, organized by the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate Change at UNAM.

The specialist in climate research and risk assessment at the University of Oxford, UK, explained: “This is one of the biggest problems that has been discovered because it produces an increase in space debris. We have a large amount of space debris and many people probably don’t know it – with 33 million objects flying above our heads – And the main way to remove it is to burn it in an atmospheric incinerator.”

However, Anil Cabanellas emphasized that stratospheric decades and objects that would be expected to burn up or be removed from space prevail, increasing their orbital age and the amount of space debris.

He added in his paper “The Structure of the Mesosphere Under Climate Change” that even when transmitting satellite data it appears that it is not sensitive to the chemical composition of the atmosphere, the fact is that the changes cause the initial composition of the satellite not to be what was expected, and therefore, that there are problems In transmitting signals, such as GPS or measurement systems.

The professor of geophysics explained that changes in the atmosphere are manifested in the temperature, air density and the amount of gases, for example an increase in carbon dioxide in the upper layers favors an increase in the density of electrons.

He explained that the study in which pollutant emissions and the characteristics of the upper atmosphere were reviewed – looking at data from 2000 and predicting their behavior until 2100 – shows that the increase in greenhouse gases leads to a decrease in the neutral electron. Density is at higher levels, so it is expected that our protective envelope will have shrunk by at least 30 percent by the end of the century.

“It is very worrying, because it affects the upper layers, especially since the phenomenon of total shrinkage of the atmosphere suffers, but from above, because in the stratosphere it is very visible, but it was not very visible in the upper layers and it turns out to be so. But this is in the models, because We have a few specific observations of this phenomenon and the most recent one was a satellite mission from Argentina that did, but since then we haven’t had anything else related to monitoring and that’s a big problem,” commented Aniel Cabanillas.

The exceptional doctoral award winner noted that in 2021, the report of the Intergovernmental Program on Climate Change (IPCC) indicated that the stratosphere has almost certainly cooled, and the Arctic vortex has likely weakened since the 1980s. More frequent trips towards Eurasia, where large episodes of cold waves are identified by this phenomenon.

The UK observer at the Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (organized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) noted that human activity is altering the upper layers of the atmosphere in a more fundamental way than previously thought, and today there is greater awareness of it, but it is under-reported as it should .

“Climate change is beyond what we experience today. We are carrying on the planet and the atmosphere in ways that were previously unimaginable, evidence shows. However, we have many doubts about the scale of these changes. Many actions are missing, and few efforts are dedicated to monitoring them,” said the Spanish researcher.

Añel Cabañelas invited graduate students from UNAM and Mexico to join her work to review this phenomenon at the University of Vigo, where she recently obtained resources to advance in this type of study.

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