Abstract
Signs of anthropogenic pressure on the atmosphere in the form of global warming of its surface layers were noticed as early as the end of the 19th century. And the first facts indicating global cooling of the meso-thermosphere were identified at the end of the 20th century. The phenomenon was formulated in 1998 in the form of the concept “Cooling and sinking of the middle and upper atmosphere”. It is an alternative to the RDR model, which is based on the hypothesis of a twofold increase in the atmospheric carbon dioxide content, as it is categorically unable to explain the entire spectrum of observed effects. The real long-term trends of almost all parameters of the neutral and charged components of the upper atmosphere (including the ionosphere) are many times higher than those predicted by the RDR model, even when the CO2 content in the upper atmosphere is only 20–30 % higher. Attracting another main mechanism — the depletion of the atmosphere with oxygen — to explain the causes of trends qualitatively solves the problem. At the same time, both the abnormal warming of the troposphere and the extreme cooling of the meso-thermosphere are two sides of the same “medal” — the consequences of the intensification of anthropogenic activity. The latter includes two directly opposite processes, caused, for the most part, by the burning of carbon fuel on an industrial scale. In the combustion process, on the one hand, the mass of CO2 increases in the atmosphere, heating the troposphere; and on the other hand, the mass of O2 decreases, cooling the thermosphere. Thus, the phenomenon known as global warming in the lower layers of the atmosphere is accompanied by global cooling in its upper layers (the greenhouse effect “below” and the refrigerator effect “above”).