The immediate impact of a rocket launch is to form a ground-level cloud from the rocket effluents as ignition occurs. This ground cloud should dissipate fairly rapidly, and the main ground-level impact should be an increase in air pollution concentrations on a local scale, and On a regional scale if launchings are frequent. The emission of waste heat and water vapor at greater heights in the troposphere may lead to the growth and/or enhancement of convective clouds and thunderstorm activity. Effluents from repeated launchings may serve to make this impact regional in scale and may be considered to have potential impact on both climate and weather. A small probability exists that local increases in acid precipitation resulting from rocket effluents could have impacts on surrounding ecosystems. Some concern has been expressed with regard to an increase in water vapor content in the stratosphere. Calculations have indicated that frequent HLLV launches (500 per year) would produce only insignificant changes in stratospheric water vapor content on a global scale.81 However, the possibility exists for a "corridor effect" in which perturbations are much more significant in latitudes where the launches occur. Effects of increased atmospheric water vapor are not completely understood, although it is possible it could lead to increased stratospheric cloud formation, which could decrease the amount of solar radiation reaching the surface. Additionally, injection of water vapor into the upper stratosphere may produce some depletion of ozone, but this should not be significant. Some production of nitric oxide (NO) may occur in the rocket exhaust, but this also should be insignificant.$1 Some impacts of rocket effluents on the upper atmosphere (mesosphere and thermosphere) may occur. Rocket launches may increase the water vapor content of the mesosphere by as much as a few percent. Additionally, the rocket effluents may serve to significantly deplete the total electron content of the ionosphere. Besides the direct effect of this depletion on electromagnetic wave propagation, airglow, and electron temperature profile, there may also be an impact on the troposphere and tropospheric weather. This could occur either through the direct migration of effluents from the upper atmosphere or through triggering and coupling mechanisms that connect changes in the upper atmosphere with effects in the lower atmosphere. Because carbon dioxide is one of the two major effluents from the HLLV, the issue of how significantly deployment of the SPS will increase
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