The amount of water added to the atmosphere by the small comets seems to conflict with well-established evidence that the stratosphere is extremely dry. How can you explain this?
The influx of water into the stratosphere from the small comets is insufficient to provide a “wet” stratosphere. The problems lie in the lower thermosphere and upper mesosphere. Simple models of water transport by eddy diffusion could not support the cometary water influxes if the upper boundary were taken above these regions. But the small comet’s momentum carries the water into the mesosphere and thus provides a low percentage of water vapor in the atmosphere. This effect could accommodate the cometary water influx into the atmosphere without exceeding the known densities. To date no one to my knowledge has used such a source term in the standard atmospheric models. Below the mesopause at about 50 miles there is a general pattern of atmospheric circulation that extends into the troposphere. The cometary water would be carried in this circulation pattern. The stratosphere is dry because the “cold finger” near the tropopause precipitates the water into the troposphere. This cometary “r
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