A recent study reveals an acceleration in the rate of expansion of the Earth's lower atmosphere... How does this happen and why?

Weather of Arabia - A recent study showed rapid changes occurring in the extension of the lower layer of the Earth's atmosphere, where we live and breathe, and these changes are due to climate change and global warming.

changing the structure of the atmosphere

Data from weather balloons launched into the upper atmosphere in the northern hemisphere during the past 40 years revealed that the troposphere, the lowest layer in the atmosphere and closest to the Earth's surface - is expanding upwards at a rate of about 50 meters per decade (every 10 years), and that the rate of atmospheric expansion accelerated last year, and climate change is the cause.

In a statement to study co-author Bill Randell, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, USA, he said, "This is an unequivocal sign of changing atmospheric structure ," and added, "These findings provide independent confirmation, as well as All the other evidence of climate change, that greenhouse gases are changing our atmosphere."

What is the troposphere and how does it expand?

The troposphere is the layer of the atmosphere closest to the surface of the Earth in which we live, and it extends from sea level to a height ranging from (7 km) above the poles to (20 km) above the tropics, and because it is the layer of the atmosphere that contains the greatest amount of Heat and humidity , it is also the part of the atmosphere in which various weather phenomena occur.

The air in the atmosphere expands when it is hot and contracts when it is cold, so the upper bound of the troposphere (called the tropopause) naturally contracts and expands with the change of seasons.

But by analyzing atmospheric data such as pressure, temperature and humidity - taken between 20 and 80 degrees north latitude - and pairing it with GPS data, the researchers showed that as the amounts of greenhouse gases trap more heat in the atmosphere, The tropopause rises higher than before.

Moreover, the rate of rise is increasing, according to the study, the rate of rise of the tropopause was about (50 meters) per decade between 1980 and 2000, while this increase increased to (53.3 meters) per decade between 2001 and 2020, taking Taking into account natural events in the study area, such as two volcanic eruptions in the 1980s and a periodic El Niño event in the Pacific Ocean in the late 1990s, however, the researchers estimated that human activity accounts for 80% of the total increase in atmospheric rise.

Climate change is not the only human-made factor causing the tropopause (the upper part of the troposphere) to rise. The stratosphere (the layer above the troposphere) is also shrinking, as a result of the destruction and shrinkage of the ozone layer (which is in the stratosphere) due to previous emissions of gases that deplete the ozone layer. (such as CFCs), despite the restrictions imposed on emissions of these gases in recent years, which have led to lower concentrations of these gases in the atmosphere.

The effect of the expansion of the troposphere

Scientists still aren't sure how rising tropopause affects the climate or weather, but it could force planes to fly higher in the atmosphere to avoid turbulence and turbulence.

This is a second important way in which humans change the structure of the Earth’s atmosphere, as the troposphere expands and the upper part of it (the tropopause) rises at an increasing rate affected by greenhouse gas emissions, even as the world succeeds in stabilizing conditions in the stratosphere by restricting ozone-destroying chemicals,