Scientists Discover the Strange Way CO2 Cools Part of Earth’s Atmosphere

Scientists discover the strange way CO2 cools part of Earth’s atmosphere

Scientists have finally cracked the mystery behind one of climate change’s strangest fingerprints: while Earth’s surface heats up, the upper atmosphere is rapidly cooling. Researchers at Columbia University discovered that carbon dioxide acts very differently high above the planet, where it actually helps radiate heat into space instead of trapping it. The team found that certain infrared wavelengths fall into a “Goldilocks zone” that becomes in…

Study posits how carbon dioxide cools the upper atmosphere, and war...

Researchers have supposedly solved a long-standing atmospheric puzzle: How rising carbon dioxide cools the stratosphere even as it warms Earth’s surface and lower atmosphere. The post Study posits how carbon dioxide cools the upper atmosphere, and warms earth below appeared first on Watts Up With That?.

Why carbon dioxide cools the upper atmosphere while heating Earth below

Scientists have long known something strange is happening in Earth’s atmosphere. While greenhouse gases are warming the planet’s surface and lower atmosphere, the upper atmosphere is actually getting colder. Now, researchers from Columbia University say they finally understand the physics behind this unusual effect. Their study, published in Nature Geoscience, explains how carbon dioxide behaves […] The post Why carbon dioxide cools the upper at…

Scientists reveal why the Earth’s upper atmosphere is cooling while the surface is heating up

The air high above Earth has been moving in the opposite direction of the world below it. While the planet’s surface and lower atmosphere keep warming, the stratosphere, the layer that begins about 11 kilometers above the ground and stretches to roughly 50 kilometers, has been cooling for decades. Climate scientists have long treated that split as one of the clearest fingerprints of human-caused climate change. What they did not have, until now,…