Growing concentrations of greenhouse gases are making the upper atmosphere thinner, decreasing its ability to pull space junk out of orbit. As a result, far fewer satellites will be able to safely operate in near-Earth space in the coming decades, with local space debris emergencies likely to become a norm, a new study suggests.
Scientists have known since the 1990s that complex processes taking place in Earth's atmosphere because of climate change could reduce the density of the upper layers of the planet's gaseous shroud. When the upper atmosphere becomes thinner, satellites and old space junk encounter less drag as they hurtle around the planet. They therefore stay afloat longer, and the lower regions of space become more cluttered. Over the past decade, studies have emerged estimating how much exactly these atmospheric changes affect those satellites.
