Tibet Provides Passage For Chemicals To Reach The Stratosphere

ASA and university researchers have found that thunderstorms over Tibet provide a main pathway for water vapor and chemicals to travel from Earth's lower atmosphere - where human activity directly affects atmospheric composition - to the stratosphere, where the protective ozone layer resides.

Learning how water vapor reaches the stratosphere can help improve climate prediction models. Likewise, understanding the pathways that ozone-depleting chemicals can take to reach the stratosphere is essential for understanding future threats to the ozone layer, which shields Earth from the Sun's harmful ultraviolet rays.