Science Daily January 8, 2019 A team of researchers in the US (Cornell University, Caltech, PNNL) established a roadmap for responsible exploration of geoengineering. They focus on the idea of stratospheric aerosol geoengineering mimicking the eruption of a volcano. They highlight two important observations, while field experiments may eventually be needed to reduce some of the uncertainties, they expect that the next phase of research will continue to be primarily model-based, and they anticipate a clear separation in scale and character between small-scale experimental research to resolve specific process uncertainties and global-scale activities…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Tag Archives: Climatology
Harvard Scientists Will Actually Launch a Geoengineering Experiment Next Year
Science Alert December 4, 2018 The project – called the Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx) – is part of Harvard’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program. To cool down the surface of the planet, in the experiment Harvard University researchers will fly a high-altitude balloon up to the stratosphere, at an altitude of about 20 kilometres, and release a small aerosol plume of calcium carbonate that is expected to disperse into a perturbed air mass about 1 kilometre long and 100 metres in diameter. The balloon will then fly back and forth through this cloud repeatedly for about 24 hours, analysing the […]
National Climate Assessment
Globalchange.gov November 1, 2018 The Third National Climate Assessment is the result of a three-year analytical effort by a team of over 300 experts, overseen by a broadly constituted Federal Advisory Committee of 60 members. It was developed from information and analyses gathered in over 70 workshops and listening sessions held across the country. It was subjected to extensive review by the public and by scientific experts in and out of government, including a special panel of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. This process of unprecedented rigor and transparency was undertaken so that the findings […]
Could an anti-global warming atmospheric spraying program really work?
Science Daily November 23, 2018 A team of researchers in the US (Yale University, Harvard University) reviewed the capabilities and costs of various lofting methods intended to deliver sulfates into the lower stratosphere. They lay out a future solar geoengineering deployment scenario of halving the increase in anthropogenic radiative forcing beginning 15 years hence by deploying material to altitudes as high as ~20 km. After surveying an exhaustive list of potential deployment techniques, they settled upon an aircraft-based delivery system. Unlike the one prior comprehensive study on the topic, they conclude that no existing aircraft design—even with extensive modifications—can reasonably […]
Geoengineering will happen, China controlling rain across Tibet
Next Big Future October 14, 2018 China and 23 other countries already engage in significant weather modification. China is setting up or has already set up a level of rain control across Tibet and other parts of China. Tens of thousands of fuel-burning chambers will be installed across the Tibetan mountains, with a view to boosting rainfall in the region by up to 10 billion tons of rain annually. In 2013, China was already producing 55 billion tons per year of artificially induced rain. China is expanding this to over 250 billion tons per year…read more.
Research forecasts US among top nations to suffer economic damage from climate change
Science Daily September 24, 2018 An international team of researchers (USA – UC San Diego, Carnegie Institution, Italy) used an innovative approach by combining results from several climate and carbon cycle modeling experiments to capture the magnitude and geographic pattern of warming under different greenhouse gas emission trajectories, and the carbon-cycle and climate system response to carbon emissions. They have developed a data set quantifying what the social cost of carbon — the measure of the economic harm from carbon dioxide emissions — will be for the globe’s nearly 200 countries. The top three counties with the most to lose […]
Earth at risk of heading towards ‘hothouse Earth’ state
Science Daily July 6, 2018 According to a study by an international team of researchers (Sweden, Australia, Denmark, UK, USA – University of Arizona, Stanford, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany) “Hothouse Earth” climate will in the long-term stabilize at a global average of 4-5°C higher than pre-industrial temperatures with sea level 10-60 m higher than today, even if the carbon emission reductions called for in the Paris Agreement are met. Maximizing the chances of avoiding a “Hothouse Earth” requires not only reduction of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions but also enhancement and/or creation of new biological carbon stores, through […]
Hole in ionosphere is caused by sudden stratospheric warming
Phys.org August 7, 2018 A team of researchers in the US (MIT Haystack Observatory, University of Colorado, University of Puerto Rico, University of Wisconsin) used decades data from Haystack and Puerto Rico observatories to study the sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event from January 2013 separating the effects of other known effects on the SSW. They found that electron density in the nighttime ionosphere was dramatically reduced by the effects of the SSW for several days, a significant hole was formed that stretched across hemispheres from latitudes 55 degrees S to 45 degrees N also and they measured a strong downward […]
New particle formation found to occur in heavily polluted air
Phys.org July 20, 2018 An international team of researchers (China, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, USA – industry, Carnegie Mellon University) investigated new particle formation (NPF) in Shanghai and were able to observe both precursor vapors (H2SO4) and initial clusters at a molecular level. High NPF rates were observed to coincide with several familiar markers suggestive of H2SO4–dimethylamine –water nucleation, including sulfuric acid dimers and H2SO4-DMA clusters. NPFs can lead to cloud formation of a type that traps heat. According to the researchers it is likely having a bigger impact on global warming than has been thought. They suggest climate change models […]
Can geoengineering ever be low risk?
Physics World June 13, 2018 At the European Union General Assembly in Vienna in April, the World Meteorological Organization proposed that to meet the Paris agreement on global warming, we should look seriously at the artificial manipulation of the climate through geoengineering. Geo-engineering strategies fall into two groups: carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and solar radiation management (SRM). Afforestation and land management, ocean fertilisation and carbon capture and storage are soft approaches to CDR with low-risk. There are currently no low-risk technologies for SRM, and further research is needed to quantify risks. Geo-engineering strategies that act to cool the planet and […]