How global warming could threaten satellites

AccuWeather

AccuWeather Forecasting Senior Director Dan DePodwin and AccuWeather Climate Expert Brett Anderson discuss the top headlines related to climate change in the March 28 edition of Climate In The News.

Transcript

00:00We're covering a couple of interesting climate stories today, starting with a

00:03part of the atmosphere that's actually cooling due to climate change, and then

00:06turning to the record ocean heat temperatures that we've experienced in

00:09the last couple years. Our first story, Brett from ABC News, that dives into the

00:15idea that the upper atmosphere on Earth is actually cooling due to climate

00:21change, and how that's impacting satellites that orbit the Earth,

00:24satellites that measure weather information, military satellites,

00:27geospatial information, how that's impacted by a cooling upper atmosphere.

00:31Right, the lower atmosphere is warming, so something has to cool, and that's the

00:37upper atmosphere. So with the upper atmosphere cooling, Dan, it's causing it

00:41to contract, the upper atmosphere to contract, and what's that's causing is

00:45less drag up above where the satellites go, and with less drag, these satellites

00:51are more prone to stay in space rather than fall to Earth, so that's a big

00:56problem, actually. Yes, so the space debris is not falling to Earth as

00:59rapidly and getting out of orbit, but there's further means that there's

01:03more space debris lingering longer, and that poses a risk to these satellites.

01:07Absolutely, a big traffic jam, that's a big problem, and we've got millions of

01:11satellites, you know, over the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years or so coming up into space

01:16more and more, so this is a big problem. Collisions are very dangerous, and so

01:21what we think might happen here as climate change continues, we're going to

01:25see a tremendous decrease in satellites, unless something is done, as much as 66%

01:31drop in the total number of satellites by the end of the century. Yeah, and so

01:35some things that people have recommended, and there are some guidance on this and

01:37some rules and regulations to remove satellites from orbit after five

01:41years for new satellites being launched. Turning to our second story from phys.org

01:45about the extreme ocean heat, in fact, record heat in many places over the

01:49last couple of years, Brett, 2023 and 2024, and it clearly indicates that

01:53climate change is occurring, but not necessarily accelerating, as some have

01:57discussed. Right, last year, 2023 and 2024, we saw a record heat in the oceans, 1.5

02:06degrees above the previous record, not just above normal. That is incredible.

02:11That usually may occur only once every 500 years, so that really stands out, but

02:17it's only two years we're talking about, and also global warming is not a linear

02:22thing. We can have variability, extreme variability, from year to year, and so

02:27that's what we might be dealing with here. We have to really look at this over

02:31a 20 to 30 year period to determine if it's accelerating. And so talk about why,

02:35Brett, the oceans are such an important part of the climate system. Yeah, the

02:39oceans store a lot of heat, actually absorb 90% of the incoming heat, so as

02:44they warm, they're not able to absorb as much heat, so where's that heat gonna go?

02:48Goes into the atmosphere. And obviously the oceans cover about 70% of the Earth's

02:52surface, so a very important part of the climate system of Earth. Thank you,

02:56Brett, for the insights there on the record ocean heat, as well as the

02:59satellites in space being impacted by climate change. For more information

03:02about climate, you can find that at accuweather.com slash climate.

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