‘Sky is not the limit’ for solar geoengineering

Science Daily  March 14, 2022
In a report a team of researchers in the US (Yale College Harvard University, AIAA, industry) responded to a question posed by the US National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine in a landmark study in March 2021 which recognized the need for additional research on the viability of depositing aerosols well above 20 km to deflect incoming sunlight and countervail global warming. According to the team airliners and military jets routinely cruise near 10 km, whereas 20 km is the realm of high-flying spy planes and drones. Planning to fly hundreds of thousands of annual solar geoengineering deployment flights to altitudes inaccessible even to elite spy planes would not only substantially increase costs, but would pose unacceptable safety risks for flight crews, aircraft, and the uninvolved public on the ground. According to the team this conclusion should alter how climate intervention models are run globally and practical limits need to be weighed against radiative efficacy in designing solar geoengineering programs…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE