Is Earth’s Lower Atmosphere Rising?

Temperatures on earth are rising and so is the actual atmosphere. Researchers found that the atmosphere is rising by 50 to 60 meters per decade! It has been found that the main driving force behind this is the increasing temperatures. This was discovered by using weather balloons in the Northern Hemisphere for the last 40 years. The part of the atmosphere that is moving, is the upper boundary of the troposphere, which is the part of sky closes to the ground. It is normal for the upper level of the troposphere, termed the tropopause to rise and fall with the seasons as air contracts in the cold and expands with warm weather. The troposphere varies in height in different parts of the world. In the tropics it is as high as 20 kilometers and near the poles it has a height of around 7 kilometers. Researchers found that the tropopause rose 200 meters in height in between 1980 and 2020. The greenhouse gases trap more heat in, which makes the air stay expanded which is causing are atmosphere to literally move.

Although researchers say that this won’t have a drastic effect on weather, this evidence of the troposphere moving is a huge reminder of the impact climate change has had on our earth. We are used to seeing the effects of climate change in weather, emissions, sea levels rising and glaciers melting, but now climate change is found in the height of the our atmosphere

Jessica Ross (6)

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/earth-lower-atmosphere-rising-climate-change-troposphere