A study was conducted by a team of scientists from the U.S. and Canada, and has published in Nature Geoscience. Research has alarming conclusion of a new unexpected contaminating the atmosphere with carbon dioxide. According to scientists, the huge emissions of CO2 may contribute to the problem of space debris and will make working on orbit very risky.

Researchers armed with features, including and the Naval Research Laboratory, first presented direct evidence that emissions of CO2, produced by human activities that increase the concentration of carbon dioxide in the upper atmosphere, including the thermosphere - above 90 km.

The observations confirm the suspicion that the concentration of CO2 increases over the entire depth of the atmosphere, not just at the height of 15 km from the surface. Until now, the measurement of CO2 was performed at a height of not more than 35 km, and reliable data on the concentration of carbon dioxide at high altitudes was not available. And only now the Canadian-American team of scientists using satellite SCISAT-1 for the first time confirmed the unpleasant fact.

According to the results of measurements of the concentration of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide gases in the thermosphere are growing at a rate of 23.5 parts per million (± 6.3) per decade. This is 10 parts per million faster than predicted modern virtual models for the upper atmosphere.

In the lower atmosphere, the troposphere, the concentration of greenhouse gases increased by 20 parts per million in a decade. The level of CO2 emissions at the surface is about 390 ppm. The research team believes that changes in the processes of vertical transport of gases in the atmosphere have led to very rapid increase in the concentration of carbon at high altitudes.

This can lead to serious negative consequences. At lower altitudes, CO2 absorbs reflected infrared radiation from the earth and returns it back.

At higher altitudes the concentration of carbon molecules are much lower, so the infrared radiation is delayed. Instead, CO2 and CO react with atomic oxygen and emit heat into space, cooling the thermosphere.

Unfortunately, this process has negative consequences: first, gradually shrinking thermosphere, so - satellites and space debris in orbit all have less friction and do not "hurry" to fall and burn.