CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 21 (UPI) -- Harvard University scientists say they have discovered tropical cyclones inject ice into the Earth's stratosphere, possibly increasing global warming
The researchers said their finding is additional evidence of the intertwining of severe weather and global warming by which storms could drive climate change and, in turn, might increase the severity of tropical cyclones.
"Since water vapor is an important greenhouse gas, an increase of water vapor in the stratosphere would warm the Earth's surface," said researcher David Romps. "Our finding that tropical cyclones are responsible for many of the clouds in the stratosphere opens up the possibility that these storms could affect global climate, in addition to the oft-mentioned possibility of climate change affecting the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones."
Romps and Assistant Professor Zhiming Kuang said they were intrigued by earlier data suggesting the amount of water vapor in the stratosphere has grown by approximately 50 percent during the past 50 years. The Harvard researchers sought to examine the possibility tropical cyclones might have contributed by sending a large fraction of their clouds into the stratosphere.
"It is ... widely believed that global warming will lead to changes in the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones," Romps and Kuang write in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. "Therefore, the results presented here establish the possibility for a feedback between tropical cyclones and global climate."
