{"id":68696,"date":"2024-06-20T11:37:38","date_gmt":"2024-06-20T16:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=68696"},"modified":"2024-06-20T11:37:38","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T16:37:38","slug":"ticking-time-bomb-space-junk-is-eating-away-at-earths-ozone-layer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=68696","title":{"rendered":"Ticking Time Bomb: Space Junk Is Eating Away at Earth\u2019s Ozone Layer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ticking Time Bomb: Space Junk Is Eating Away at Earth\u2019s Ozone Layer<\/a><\/h3>\n
TOPICS:Aerospace Engineering<\/a>American Geophysical Union<\/a>Climate Change<\/a>Environment<\/a>Ozone<\/a>Satellites<\/a><\/div>\n<\/header>\n

By<\/span>\u00a0AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION<\/span>\u00a0JUNE 19, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"SpaceX<\/a><\/p>\n

Thousands of satellites have been deployed into \u201cmegaconstellations\u201d to fulfill the growing need for worldwide internet services, with many more planned for launch soon. However, these compact satellites have a brief operational life and are known to emit pollutants that can harm the ozone layer when they disintegrate upon reentry. A recent study published in Geophysical Research Letters has, for the first time, quantified the extent of this pollution. Credit: SpaceX\/public domain<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When internet-providing satellites \u2014 now being launched by the thousands \u2014 reach the end of their service life, the remnants from their incineration in Earth\u2019s atmosphere will initiate chemical reactions that deplete stratospheric ozone.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When outdated satellites re-enter Earth\u2019s atmosphere and disintegrate, they release small aluminum oxide particles that erode the Earth\u2019s ozone layer. A recent study reveals that the presence of these particles has surged eightfold from 2016 to 2022 and is expected to keep rising with the growing number of satellites in low-Earth orbit.<\/p>\n

The 1987 Montreal Protocol successfully regulated ozone-damaging CFCs to protect the ozone layer, shrinking the ozone hole over Antarctica with\u00a0recovery expected<\/a>\u00a0in the next fifty years. However, the unexpected increase in aluminum oxides could interrupt the progress made in ozone recovery in the coming decades.<\/p>\n

Of the\u00a08,100 objects<\/a> in low Earth orbit, 6,000 are Starlink satellites launched in the last few years. Demand for global internet coverage is driving a rapid ramp-up of launches of small communication satellite swarms…<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ticking Time Bomb: Space Junk Is Eating Away at Earth\u2019s Ozone Layer TOPICS:Aerospace EngineeringAmerican Geophysical UnionClimate ChangeEnvironmentOzoneSatellites By\u00a0AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION\u00a0JUNE 19, 2024 Thousands of satellites have been deployed into \u201cmegaconstellations\u201d to fulfill the growing need for worldwide internet services, with many more planned for launch soon. However, these compact satellites have a brief operational life […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[17014,34711,12611],"class_list":["post-68696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-ozone-layer","tag-scitechdaily","tag-space-junk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68696"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68697,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68696\/revisions\/68697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}