Researchers in the US and Canada simulated solar radiation management (SRM), a form of geo-engineering that involves reflecting sunlight to reduce global warming.
Suggested approaches are to increase the amount of light-scattering stratospheric aerosols or increase the reflectivity of low-altitude marine clouds. The idea has attracted renewed interest but there are enormous uncertainties about the risks and effectiveness of SRM.
The team used a HadCM3L programme for the simulations and came to the conclusion that solar geo-engineering could be tested to reduce uncertainty about climate response, but tests would require decades of modulated climate forcing.
Read the EES article today hot off the press!
Can we test geoengineering?
D G MacMynowski, D W Keith, K Caldeira and H-J Shin,
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/c1ee01256h
