{"id":34748,"date":"2010-11-30T13:27:36","date_gmt":"2010-11-30T18:27:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fredbortz.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=34748"},"modified":"2011-07-12T22:35:32","modified_gmt":"2011-07-12T22:35:32","slug":"warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/34748\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Warning for Geo-engineers: SO2 may surprise you"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve blogged before about <A HREF=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/19107\/is-geo-engineering-our-only-hope\/\" \/>trying to avoid geo-engineering as a solution to climate change<\/A>. We just don&#8217;t know enough about the complexities of climate to try relatively simple fixes, like adding sulfur dioxide to the atmosphere. The following news release from the European Space Agency&#8217;s Venus Express program ought to give us pause.<\/p>\n<p><A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.fredbortz.com\/home.htm\">Fred Bortz<\/A><br \/>\n<!--more--> <\/p>\n<p>VENUS HOLDS WARNING FOR EARTH<\/p>\n<p>Article and images: <A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/esaSC\/SEM8Z7OWXGG_index_0.html\">http:\/\/www.esa.int\/esaSC\/SEM8Z7OWXGG_index_0.html<\/A><\/p>\n<p>30 November 2010<\/p>\n<p>A mysterious high-altitude layer of sulphur dioxide discovered by<br \/>\nESA\u2019s Venus Express has been explained. As well as telling us more<br \/>\nabout Venus, it could be a warning against injecting our atmosphere<br \/>\nwith sulphur droplets to mitigate climate change.<\/p>\n<p>Venus is blanketed in sulphuric acid clouds that block our view of the<br \/>\nsurface. The clouds form at altitudes of 50-70 km (30-45 miles) when<br \/>\nsulphur dioxide from volcanoes combines with water vapor to make<br \/>\nsulphuric acid droplets. Any remaining sulphur dioxide should be<br \/>\ndestroyed rapidly by the intense solar radiation above 70 km.<\/p>\n<p>So the detection of a sulphur dioxide layer at 90-110 km by ESA\u2019s<br \/>\nVenus Express orbiter in 2008 posed a complete mystery. Where did that<br \/>\nsulphur dioxide come from?<\/p>\n<p>Now, computer simulations by Xi Zhang, California Institute of<br \/>\nTechnology, USA, and colleagues from America, France and Taiwan show<br \/>\nthat some sulphuric acid droplets may evaporate at high altitude,<br \/>\nfreeing gaseous sulphuric acid that is then broken apart by sunlight,<br \/>\nreleasing sulphur dioxide gas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had not expected the high-altitude sulphur layer, but now we can<br \/>\nexplain our measurements,\u201d says Hakan Svedhem, ESA\u2019s Venus Express<br \/>\nProject Scientist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, the new findings also mean that the atmospheric sulphur<br \/>\ncycle is more complicated than we thought.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As well as adding to our knowledge of Venus, this new understanding<br \/>\nmay be warning us that proposed ways of mitigating climate change on<br \/>\nEarth may not be as effective as originally thought.<\/p>\n<p>Nobel prize winner Paul Crutzen has recently advocated injecting<br \/>\nartificially large quantities of sulphur dioxide into Earth\u2019s<br \/>\natmosphere at around 20 km to counteract the global warming resulting<br \/>\nfrom increased greenhouse gases.<\/p>\n<p>The proposal stems from observations of powerful volcanic eruptions,<br \/>\nin particular the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines<br \/>\nthat shot sulphur dioxide up into Earth\u2019s atmosphere. Reaching 20 km<br \/>\nin altitude, the gas formed small droplets of concentrated sulphuric<br \/>\nacid, like those found in Venus\u2019 clouds, which then spread around<br \/>\nEarth. The droplets created a haze layer that reflected some of the<br \/>\nSun\u2019s rays back into space, cooling the whole planet by about 0.5<br \/>\ndegree C.<\/p>\n<p>However, the new work on the evaporation of sulphuric acid on Venus<br \/>\nsuggests that such attempts at cooling our planet may not be as<br \/>\nsuccessful as first thought, because we do not know how quickly the<br \/>\ninitially protective haze will be converted back into gaseous<br \/>\nsulphuric acid: this is transparent and so allows all the Sun\u2019s rays<br \/>\nthrough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe must study in great detail the potential consequences of such an<br \/>\nartificial sulphur layer in the atmosphere of Earth,\u201d says Jean-Loup<br \/>\nBertaux, Universite de Versailles-Saint-Quentin, France, Principal<br \/>\nInvestigator of the SPICAV sensor on Venus Express. \u201cVenus has an<br \/>\nenormous layer of such droplets, so anything that we learn about those<br \/>\nclouds is likely to be relevant to any geo-engineering of our own<br \/>\nplanet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In effect, nature is doing the experiment for us, and Venus Express<br \/>\nallows us to learn the lessons before experimenting with our own<br \/>\nworld.<\/p>\n<p>                          # # #<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPhotolysis of sulphuric acid as the source of sulphur oxides in the<br \/>\nmesosphere of Venus,\u201d by Xi Zhang, Mao-Chang Liang, Franck Montmessin,<br \/>\nJean-Loup Bertaux, Christopher Parkinson and Yuk L. Yung, is published<br \/>\nin Nature Geoscience today.<\/p>\n<p>Venus Express\u2019s instrument SPICAV stands for Spectroscopy for<br \/>\nInvestigation of Characteristics of the Atmosphere of Venus.<\/p>\n<p>ESA PIO Source:<br \/>\nMarkus Bauer<br \/>\nESA Science and Robotic Exploration Communication Officer<br \/>\n+31 71 565 6799, +31 61 594 3 954<br \/>\nmarkus.bauer@esa.int<\/p>\n<p>Science Contacts:<br \/>\nHakan Svedhem<br \/>\nESA Project Scientist Venus Express<br \/>\nH.Svedhem@esa.int<\/p>\n<p>Jean-Loup Bertaux, SPICAV Principal Investigator<br \/>\nLATMOS, Universite de Versailles-Saint-Quentin, France<br \/>\n+33 1 80 28 50 62, +33 6 80 73 08 70<br \/>\njean-loup.bertaux@latmos.ipsl.fr<\/p>\n<p>Colin F. Wilson<br \/>\nOxford University, UK<br \/>\n+44 1865 272 086<br \/>\nwilson@atm.ox.ac.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>European Space Agency:<br \/>\n&#8220;A mysterious high-altitude layer of sulphur dioxide discovered by<br \/>\nESA\u2019s Venus Express has been explained. As well as telling us more<br \/>\nabout Venus, it could be a warning against injecting our atmosphere<br \/>\nwith sulphur droplets to mitigate climate change.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,17,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-change","category-planetary-science","category-space-and-astronomy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Warning for Geo-engineers: SO2 may surprise you - Fred Bortz<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/34748\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Warning for Geo-engineers: SO2 may surprise you\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"European Space Agency: &quot;A mysterious high-altitude layer of sulphur dioxide discovered by ESA\u2019s Venus Express has been explained. As well as telling us more about Venus, it could be a warning against injecting our atmosphere with sulphur droplets to mitigate climate change.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/34748\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fred Bortz\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-11-30T18:27:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-07-12T22:35:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Bortz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/fredbortz\\\/34748\\\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/fredbortz\\\/34748\\\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Fred Bortz\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/fredbortz\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bea53d83d9cc5b656b09711889729c0b\"},\"headline\":\"Warning for Geo-engineers: SO2 may surprise you\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-11-30T18:27:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-07-12T22:35:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/fredbortz\\\/34748\\\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":688,\"commentCount\":2,\"articleSection\":[\"Climate Change\",\"Planetary Science\",\"Space and Astronomy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/fredbortz\\\/34748\\\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\\\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2010\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/fredbortz\\\/34748\\\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/fredbortz\\\/34748\\\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\\\/\",\"name\":\"Warning for Geo-engineers: SO2 may surprise you - Fred Bortz\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/fredbortz\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-11-30T18:27:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-07-12T22:35:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/fredbortz\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bea53d83d9cc5b656b09711889729c0b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/fredbortz\\\/34748\\\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/fredbortz\\\/34748\\\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/fredbortz\\\/34748\\\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/fredbortz\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Warning for Geo-engineers: SO2 may surprise you\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/fredbortz\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/fredbortz\\\/\",\"name\":\"Fred Bortz\",\"description\":\"Reviews, Views, and News from an Award-Winning Author\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/fredbortz\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/fredbortz\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bea53d83d9cc5b656b09711889729c0b\",\"name\":\"Fred Bortz\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f30bc8a518cc75528335f3a1c68ebe6930eef6cb9e043a687c480ef22dcd8898?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f30bc8a518cc75528335f3a1c68ebe6930eef6cb9e043a687c480ef22dcd8898?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/f30bc8a518cc75528335f3a1c68ebe6930eef6cb9e043a687c480ef22dcd8898?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Fred Bortz\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/fredbortz\\\/author\\\/fredbortz\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Warning for Geo-engineers: SO2 may surprise you - Fred Bortz","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/34748\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Warning for Geo-engineers: SO2 may surprise you","og_description":"European Space Agency: \"A mysterious high-altitude layer of sulphur dioxide discovered by ESA\u2019s Venus Express has been explained. As well as telling us more about Venus, it could be a warning against injecting our atmosphere with sulphur droplets to mitigate climate change.\"","og_url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/34748\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\/","og_site_name":"Fred Bortz","article_published_time":"2010-11-30T18:27:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-07-12T22:35:32+00:00","author":"Fred Bortz","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/34748\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/34748\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\/"},"author":{"name":"Fred Bortz","@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/#\/schema\/person\/bea53d83d9cc5b656b09711889729c0b"},"headline":"Warning for Geo-engineers: SO2 may surprise you","datePublished":"2010-11-30T18:27:36+00:00","dateModified":"2011-07-12T22:35:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/34748\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\/"},"wordCount":688,"commentCount":2,"articleSection":["Climate Change","Planetary Science","Space and Astronomy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/34748\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2010","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/34748\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\/","url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/34748\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\/","name":"Warning for Geo-engineers: SO2 may surprise you - Fred Bortz","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-11-30T18:27:36+00:00","dateModified":"2011-07-12T22:35:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/#\/schema\/person\/bea53d83d9cc5b656b09711889729c0b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/34748\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/34748\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/34748\/warning-for-geo-engineers-so2-may-surprise-you\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Warning for Geo-engineers: SO2 may surprise you"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/#website","url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/","name":"Fred Bortz","description":"Reviews, Views, and News from an Award-Winning Author","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/#\/schema\/person\/bea53d83d9cc5b656b09711889729c0b","name":"Fred Bortz","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f30bc8a518cc75528335f3a1c68ebe6930eef6cb9e043a687c480ef22dcd8898?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f30bc8a518cc75528335f3a1c68ebe6930eef6cb9e043a687c480ef22dcd8898?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f30bc8a518cc75528335f3a1c68ebe6930eef6cb9e043a687c480ef22dcd8898?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Fred Bortz"},"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/author\/fredbortz\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgtNOQ-92s","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/fredbortz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}