Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite between positions downrange, generally northeast of this position. Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) was a NASA-operated orbital observatory whose mission was to study the Earth’s atmosphere, particularly the protective ozone layer. The satellite was deployed from Space Shuttle "Discovery" during the STS-48 mission on 15 September 1991. It entered Earth orbit at an operational altitude of , with an orbital inclination of 57 degrees. The original mission duration was to be only three years, but was extended several times. When the mission finally ended in June 2005 due to funding cuts, 14 years after the
Runaway greenhouse effect feedback effect from increased atmospheric water vapor, as well as Earth being too far away from the Sun at its current luminosity for such to occur is well below that which is required to boil away the oceans. Climate scientist John Houghton has written that "[there] is no possibility of [Venus's] runaway greenhouse conditions occurring on the Earth". However, climatologist James Hansen disagrees. In his "Storms of My Grandchildren" he says that burning coal and mining shale oil will result in runaway greenhouse on Earth. A re-evaluation in 2013 of the effect of water vapor in the climate models showed