Climate Change: Increasing Degradation of Stratosphere is a Major Concern

Introduction

The world bodies led by the UN agencies are rightly showing their concerns in Climate Changes taking place and trying to limit the degradations. Most of the world attention is on the degradations of only the lower parts of atmosphere, the ‘Troposphere’. There is no doubt that there is a to huge loading of greenhouse gasses and particles due to burning of coal, fossil fuels as well as many other activities. No doubt it is causing greenhouse effects. However we tend to ignore that there is a natural corrective measures of convection currents, rains, CO2 & N2 cycles in place that alleviate and minimise some of those damages. Hence, it is felt that concentrating the world attention on troposphere alone may be a misplaced approach towards addressing the Climate Change. There is one factor that is attracting very little attention which is the degradation of the atmosphere above tropopause where there is no weather effects and on the contrary, there is a reversal of temperature phenomena with altitude. Any degradation of the atmosphere there causes a prolonged and sustained effect of greenhouse effect. In the recent decades, aviation activities, space rockets and ballistic missile launches have increased drastically thus causing a sustained greenhouse effects for which nature has no amelioration or cure. World bodies causing these degradations are large fishes whom very few are willing to take on incl the biased climate activists. Let us analyse the major facors as below.

Environmental Degradation and Climatic Factors

Planet Earth is at the brink of becoming non-liveable for the most living beings. Rising temperature, shrinking ice covers, rising sea, disappearing vulnerable flora & fauna, raging wildfires, unprecedented cloud bursts causing enormous griefs and numerous other adverse events taking places every now and then, are pointer to it. Planet Earth is facing multi-level challenges mostly caused by human activities but some are natural too, beyond one’s controls as mentioned elsewhere (read “Climate Change: Some Divergent Views”, https://thecounterviews.in/articles/climate-change-some-divergent-views/). The resultant pollutants create varied problems mentioned elsewhere. The greenhouse effects of the atmospheric blanket of Earth in the Troposphere is mostly ameliorated by nature through several phenomena, some mentioned as below:-

• A temperature lapse rate with increasing altitude that set convection current.
• Weather phenomena causing rain or equivalent effects that keep cleaning the atmosphere of majority of greenhouse gasses.
• Operation of CO2 cycle at the surface and green cover of Earth
• Operation of Nitrogen cycle in atmosphere and plantations that reduce the oxides of Nitrogen from the atmosphere.
• Wind movements dilute the pollutants over wider area that facilitates other ameliorative effects to be more effective.

While most of the obnoxious gasses are brought back to Earth’s crust and oceans through climatic effects, winds & rains, green cover takes care of the Carbon Dioxide-Oxygen regeneration cycle. This substantially reduces the greenhouse gasses within troposphere. Although sheer bulk of greenhouse gasses (incl total Carbon emissions) are enormous, it may not be alarming as yet with the ameliorative process going on.

Human indulgence in the Aerospace arena through high altitude flying aircraft and rockets (space launches & ballistic missiles) has been polluting the upper layers of the atmosphere (Stratosphere & Mesosphere) through exhaust gasses some of which remain for long in aerosol form (read https://research.noaa.gov/2021/06/30/earth-has-two-different-stratospheres-and-aviation-may-be-to-blame/). These greenhouse gasses, particulates and aerosols are unable to enter moderation effects of the Troposphere owing mainly to the reverse lapse rate of temperature in the Stratosphere, causing long-duration effects invisible to the most. Hence, it could be reliably postulated that these pollutants could be a major source of greenhouse effects than those pollutants in the troposphere. Not many scientists chose to opine freely on it because the polluters of Stratosphere and beyond are mainly the strongmen of the world, it is possible that people (incl activists) are reluctant to raise voice. This is unfortunate politics of the mightier. Another effect of pollution of the Stratosphere is the catalytic destruction of Ozone layer which is so difficult to heal. It is far reaching consequences upon the biosphere of the earth thus seriously impacting Biogeochemical cycle (read https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43630-022-00176-5).

Invisible Greenhouse Effects of Aerospace Activities

Most of the Climate activists are either aloof of or partisan to climatic degradations caused by the spreads of the greenhouse gasses and particulates into Stratosphere/Mesosphere through the exhaust gasses of the Rockets, Ballistic Missiles, or high flying numerous commercial and military aircraft. They all cause loading of the upper atmosphere by the many greenhouse gasses created by the aircraft’s Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) or rocket propellants whether solid, liquid/cryogenic. Majority of the propellants used in the rockets & missiles include Solid (Hydroxy-Terminator Polybutadiene, HTPB), Liquid fuels of Petroleum, Cryogens or Hypergols; such as Refined Petroleum (RP-1)/Hydrazine (UDMH/MMH)/ Liquid Methane (CH4) or Liquid Hydrogen.

Practically most of the exhaust gasses created by burning of solid, liquid / cryogenic propellants, all add up to the greenhouse gas effects besides some damaging the Ozone layer too. These gasses include molecules of Hydrochloric acid (HCl), water vapour (H2O), Hydroxyl molecules (OH), carbon dioxide (CO2), Carbon Monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), alumina (Al2O3), black Carbon (BC), unburnt CH4, and Hydrazine (N2H4) etc posing long duration effects in the absence of the weather phenomena above Tropopause. These gasses continue absorbing part of the secondary infra-red radiations emitted by Earth thru’ its varied phenomena, thus causing greenhouse effects to our planet invisible to the most. Reversal of temperature in the Stratosphere doesn’t permit those gasses to descend to Troposphere, thus preventing them to enter weather cycle. Those gas molecules remain in Stratosphere and Mesosphere for long before slowly escaping to outer space. It continues posing greenhouse effects for years with cumulative effects continue due to increasingly aerospace activities. The loading of such pollutant gas molecules and particulates in the recent years and decades have multiplied many folds through increased rocketry, be it ballistic missiles or the space launches. The recent advanced heavy rockets for space applications are the matters of grave concerns to the Earth Scientists that pollute the upper atmosphere as well as ablate substantial part of it into the vacuum of space (read “Climate Change: Some Divergent Views”, https://thecounterviews.in/articles/climate-change-some-divergent-views/).

Equally important is the burning of man-made space junks incl rockets, satellites, space stations and similar other objects incl space debris during its re-entry, leaving huge amounts of particulates and gasses of burn in upper atmosphere (read “Space Junk is polluting Stratosphere” https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/space-junk-is-polluting-earths-stratosphere-with-vaporized-metal/). No space venturing nation or activists are talking of it. No studies have been carried out as yet on its greenhouse impacts which is expected to be significant. No space agencies have catered for their rockets to decelerate enough so as not to burn during re-entry. UN must make law in this respect.

Greater Threats of Heavier Rockets

Heavier rockets use huge amounts of fuels and most part of their trajectories are in upper atmosphere, in both vertical and horizontal axes. In addition, self-destruction of the launcher dumps huge amounts of unburnt/burnt fuels that remain suspended in upper atmosphere for substantial period adding cumulatively to the greenhouse effects. Besides, they also ablate huge amounts of upper atmosphere into the vacuum of space during each launch. SpaceX carried out self-destruction of the largest rocket called ‘Starship’ both in April and Nov 2023 with hundreds of tons of fuel splashed, some unburnt too. These molecules of fuels/exhaust gasses will continue its greenhouse effects for our planet for years…BUT…the Climate activists are silent and mum. Even the world bodies like UN Climate & Planet forum remains silent because big players like SpaceX, NASA, Roscosmos, Chinese CNSA, ESA etc having large stakes in it. The so-called ‘Climate activists’ are smart lots, manifesting duplicity in their approach and action. They never protest the larger rockets greatly polluting upper atmosphere. As long as the rocket launch to space were exclusively for S&T purpose, it was limited to a few in a year. However, today Falcon-9 rockets of SpaceX, Long March of China and Soyuz/Proton of Russia…all having enormous payload carrying capacities, carry huge amounts of propellants emitting huge amounts of greenhouse exhaust gasses.

There was a time in past when rockets used to be launched very rarely mostly by US & USSR. In recent years and decades rockets launches have increased to several hundred by several nations that can no longer be ignored. Further, rocket like ‘Starship’ consumes fuel emitting exhaust gasses almost 5-times the Falcon 9 rockets. The recent blowing up of two Starship flights of SpaceX spilled huge amount of fuel and fire in the upper atmosphere that merits investigation by the UN environmentalists for the extent of damages esp pertaining to greenhouse effects. It is believed that env damage could be immense. Over and above the rockets/missiles, high altitude commercial aircrafts above Tropopause do immense damage to Climate by loading exhaust greenhouse gasses in Stratosphere and above seldom enter Troposphere owing mainly to the reversal of temperature in Stratosphere. As a result, tens of thousands of tons of greenhouse gasses are added to the upper atmosphere every year which has only been increasing in the recent years owing to increase in commercial aviation. Besides, thousands of tons of the precious Oxygen used to burn the propellants above stratosphere can never enter recycling process of oxygen/Carbon dioxide/weather cycles and are lost forever. Amidst the enhanced aviation and space activities the world bodies should not be taken by surprise if fall in atmospheric PPO2 is observed sometime later when it may be too late to reverse them. Surprisingly enough, climate activists have no concern for these potential catastrophes.

The Bottomline

Our planet, mother Earth has been long enduring the spoils we human beings are indulging upon. For long human development methods by developed nations ignored the basic principles of living in harmony with nature. The result is before us in the form of Climate Changes and Environmental adversities that may be reaching a stage of ‘difficult to return’. While natural spoils by volcanos, are not in our hands greenhouse gasses and particulates being added up by human into upper atmosphere (esp Stratosphere) through aviation and space activities are inexcusable. It is time for the UN bodies to be firm against the spoilers without bias. It can’t remain mute spectator to events that may make the human species an extinct thru’ uninhabitable planet Earth.