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Science 25 July 2003:
Vol. 301. no. 5632, pp. 469 - 470
DOI: 10.1126/science.1086051
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Perspectives

ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE:
Climate Change at Cruising Altitude?

Brian J. Hoskins

The tropopause separates the turbulent lower atmosphere from the more quiescent stratosphere above. In his Perspective, Hoskins explains that the tropopause regulates the chemical exchange and dynamical interaction between the atmospheric layers. He highlights the report by Santer et al., who show that the height of the tropopause has changed over the past 20 years. They attribute this change mostly to increases in the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and to loss of ozone in the stratosphere. Climatic changes as a result of human activity are thus not confined to Earth's surface.

The author is in the Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6BB, UK. E-mail: b.j.hoskins{at}reading.ac.uk

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