Environment

Rocket Pollution

Researchers warn that the rapidly increasing number of rocket launches threatens to alter the highest levels of Earth’s atmosphere, and perhaps the planet’s weather. The sootlike grains of black carbon produced when kerosene is burned as an oxidizer in rocket fuel can accumulate in the stratosphere, where they can trap heat from the sun and potentially damage the ozone layer.

A team from the U.S. environmental agency NOAA looked at what would happen if such launches increase by 10 times their current level by 2040, which is predicted. They found that the stratosphere could warm by up to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 C), with jet stream winds increasing by about 11 miles per hour.

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