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Could geoengineering research help answer one of the biggest questions in climate science?: GEOENGINEERING RESEARCH

Journal Article · · Earth's Future
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2017EF000601· OSTI ID:1390443
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
  2. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  3. Ocean Conservancy, Washington, D.C. (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Anthropogenic aerosol impacts on clouds constitute the largest source of uncertainty in quantifying the radiative forcing of climate, and hinders our ability to determine Earth's climate sensitivity to greenhouse gas increases. Representation of aerosol–cloud interactions in global models is particularly challenging because these interactions occur on typically unresolved scales. Observational studies show influences of aerosol on clouds, but correlations between aerosol and clouds are insufficient to constrain aerosol forcing because of the difficulty in separating aerosol and meteorological impacts. In this commentary, we argue that this current impasse may be overcome with the development of approaches to conduct control experiments whereby aerosol particle perturbations can be introduced into patches of marine low clouds in a systematic manner. Such cloud perturbation experiments constitute a fresh approach to climate science and would provide unprecedented data to untangle the effects of aerosol particles on cloud microphysics and the resulting reflection of solar radiation by clouds. Here, the control experiments would provide a critical test of high-resolution models that are used to develop an improved representation aerosol–cloud interactions needed to better constrain aerosol forcing in global climate models.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1390443
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA--127932
Journal Information:
Earth's Future, Journal Name: Earth's Future Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 5; ISSN 2328-4277
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (4)

The Radiative Forcing of Aerosol–Cloud Interactions in Liquid Clouds: Wrestling and Embracing Uncertainty journal February 2018
Substantial Cloud Brightening From Shipping in Subtropical Low Clouds journal March 2020
Mission-driven research for stratospheric aerosol geoengineering journal January 2019
Solar geoengineering as part of an overall strategy for meeting the 1.5°C Paris target
  • MacMartin, Douglas G.; Ricke, Katharine L.; Keith, David W.
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 376, Issue 2119 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2016.0454
journal April 2018

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Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
58 GEOSCIENCES
clouds
geoengineering
marine cloud brightening