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Improving effectiveness of solar geoengineering

Solar radiation management is a type of geoengineering that would manipulate the climate in order to reduce the impact of global warming caused by greenhouse gasses. Ideas include increasing the amount of aerosols in the stratosphere, which could scatter incoming solar light away from Earth’s surface, or creating low-altitude marine clouds to reflect these same rays.

Research models have indicated that the climatic effect of this type of geoengineering will vary by region, because the climate systems respond differently to the reflecting substances than they do to the atmospheric carbon dioxide that traps warmth in Earth’s atmosphere. New work from a team including Carnegie’s Ken Caldeira uses a climate model to look at maximizing the effectiveness of solar radiation management techniques. Their work is published October 21st by Nature Climate Change.

Attempting to counteract the warming effect of greenhouse gases with a uniform layer of aerosols in the stratosphere, would cool the tropics much more than it affects polar areas. Greenhouse gases tend to suppress precipitation and an offsetting reduction in amount of sunlight absorbed by Earth would not restore this precipitation. Both greenhouse gases and aerosols affect the distribution of heat and rain on this planet, but they change temperature and precipitation in different ways in different places. Varying the amount of sunlight deflected away from the Earth both regionally and seasonally could combat some of this problem.

By tailoring geoengineering efforts by region and by need, the team—led by California Institute of Technology’s Douglas MacMartin—was able to explore ways to maximize effectiveness while minimizing the side effects and risks of this type of planetary intervention.

“These results indicate that varying geoengineering efforts by region and over different periods of time could potentially improve the effectiveness of solar geoengineering and reduce climate impacts in at-risk areas,” Caldeira said. “For example, these approaches may be able to reverse long-term changes in the Arctic sea ice.”

The study used a sophisticated climate model, but the team’s model is still much simpler than the real world. Interference in Earth’s climate system, whether intentional or unintentional, is likely to produce unanticipated outcomes.

“We have to expect the unexpected,” Caldeira added. “The safest way to reduce climate risk is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

 




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3 thoughts on “Improving effectiveness of solar geoengineering”

  1. “The study used a sophisticated climate model, but the team’s model is still much simpler than the real world. Interference in Earth’s climate system, whether intentional or unintentional, is likely to produce unanticipated outcomes.”

    Indeed!

    If we reach the point of needing geo-engineering to reduce the impact of global warming, we will already be in enough trouble.

    Beware the law of unintended consequences!

  2. These stories about geoengineering are in preparation for revealing that we have been sprayed for the past 15 or so years. Look up at the sky. Those enduring trails are NOT contrails. True contrails don’t exist at the altitudes and temps we see them and they don’t fluff out and form cloud cover. More people are awakening, the gig is up, the ones in control know this and are preparing to manage the revelation that we are being sprayed like bugs by our loving masters. It’s for our own good, right?

    Putting aerosols (flack) in the stratosphere also allows ionospheric heaters like HAARP to work much more effectively for long distance bunker-busting and communications. It also harms our health and so fits nicely into the Malthusian fantasies of those driving policy in the US and the Western world. (Population reduction, anyone?)

    Wake up and stop selling this nonsense. Intelligent folks aren’t buying it.

  3. Perhaps before they consider
    “putting aerosols in the stratosphere to reflect incoming sunlight back into space”, they should halt the existing chemtrail operations which have been making matters worse for the past seventeen plus years.

    Chemtrails: The Hidden Truth
    http://www.upwardvectorpubs.com/55zgw3.htm

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