Scientists have detected in the atmosphere a gas that traps heat more effectively than any other previously found there. Laboratory measurements show that, pound-for-pound, it absorbs about 18,000 times as much infrared radiation as carbon dioxide does.
The researchers find the gas, trifluoromethyl sulfur pentafluoride (SF5CF3), only at trace levels—about 0.12 parts per trillion in 1999—in the atmosphere, but their analysis shows that concentrations are rising at about 6 percent per year.
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