The Effect of Space Debris on Climate Change

[erpowers]

Last week there was a least a little attention paid to the large amount of space debris surrounding Earth's orbit. Does space debris have any effect on climate change?

[ThomWV]

1. Shade=Cool

More correctly light which would otherwise have struck and heated (because of increased retention) the earth is deflected elsewhere.

[GoesTo11]

2. Too small to have an effect

Earth surface area ~500 million square kilometers.

Let's say the space crash was between two car-sized bodies in low-earth orbit and they split into about 10 layers of stuff each. A car's footprint is about 2m x 5m, or 10 square meters. Multiply that by the 10 layers and 2 cars, 200 square meters.

There are 1 million square meters in a single kilometer, so this debris would cover 0.4 x one trillionth of the surface of the earth.

But it would be possible to make a bigger effect with intentionally large clouds of debris (that would probably preclude use of orbiting satellites though). There are people talking about putting more dust in the upper atmosphere to block out light and cool the earth, like a major volcano eruption does. Calculations show it could be feasible but who knows what the negative effects would be.

[ThomWV]

3. Certainly true - far to small to have a 'measurable' effect.

Let the imagination fly:

OK, how about a giant Venetian blind sort of affair parked in orbit in an unused altitude. Large enough and far enough out to cast a shadow on the polar ice cap region. Make the thing out of something like mylar, super shiny on one side. Make it blind-like in that it can be adjusted to let through more or less light. Keep the ice caps in good shape and the planet will follow, if it gets too hot just let in less light, cools down too much, open the blinds and let more light through.

Now, remember that miles long cable they trailed behind some space craft or another back a decade or two ago? They pulled the thing to see if moving it through the magnetic field of the earth would generate electricity in a useful amount. Surprise! It lit up the sky and generated so much juice it melted the cable in a matter of a few moments. As I recall it was visible all over the southern sky. Well, how might we find a way to use that power source. Gotta be careful on that one, any energy intercpeted in space certainly has the effect of lowering our temperature, but what happens if you capture excess energy up there and pipe it down here? Obvious answer, earth heating.

OK, back to sanity now.

[MadHound]

4. I seriously doubt it

Not enough to cause any shade effects. Too little to heat up the atmosphere as it comes down and burns up. The worst danger is that this debris will damage anything currently in orbit and anything that we put up in orbit.