Federal researchers are hoping that a cheap, 21-pound glider with stubby wings will help them solve a daunting climate challenge: How to thoroughly explore the Earth’s upper atmosphere.
If humanity can't find a way to limit emissions that cause global warming, some scientists think we might be able to keep the Earth from dangerously overheating by creating clouds in the stratosphere that can slightly lower temperatures by shading it.
The thickness of the atmospheric layer has contracted by 400 metres since the 1980s, the researchers found, and will thin by about another kilometre by 2080 without major cuts in emissions.
The 2019–20 wildfires in Australia injected huge amounts of smoke into the stratosphere, which has led to record aerosol levels over the southern hemisphere.
