Climatologists have proposed drying up the air over the tropics with ice to combat warming

American researchers, funded by NASA, have developed a new strategy to combat global warming. Another concept is based on a change in the composition of the earth’s atmosphere, namely a decrease in the concentration of water vapor at a certain altitude. Moreover, scientists plan to do this by “pumping” these layers of the atmosphere with water, or more precisely, with water ice.

Water vapor is recognized as the most effective greenhouse gas at trapping heat (infrared radiation) within the Earth's atmosphere. In this regard, it makes a significantly greater contribution to the greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide, methane, ozone and other gases combined. Therefore, the fight against the main ally of predicted global warming, on the one hand, is logical and justified, but on the other hand, it is extremely difficult and dangerous. Especially considering how important water, including water vapor in the atmosphere, is to all life on Earth.

However, researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA have decided to introduce a new climate intervention strategy aimed at reducing stratospheric water vapor concentrations. The target of such an intervention—the tropical tropopause (a layer of the atmosphere at an altitude of 16-18 kilometers)—was not chosen by chance.

The fact is that most of the water vapor enters the stratosphere through this layer. Air laden with water vapor can then circulate toward the poles for four years before returning to the troposphere and falling as precipitation.

In their new work, researchers from the United States proposed using ice, or more precisely, using specialized aircraft to throw out small (ten to one hundred nanometers) particles of water ice in the region of the tropical tropopause, at an altitude of about 17 kilometers.

These particles will act as ice nucleators and condense water vapor, preventing it from rising even higher into the stratosphere. Details of the concept are outlined in an article published in the journal Science Advances.

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