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.
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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.