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Links to recent scientific papers, web posts, upcoming events, job opportunities, podcasts, and event recordings, etc. on Solar Radiation Management Technology.
RESEARCH ARTICLESOjo, O. S., Emmanuel, I., Ogolo, E., & Adeyemi, B. (2024). Impact of stratospheric aerosol injection on photovoltaic energy potential over Nigeria. Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment, 18(1), 5. Abstract This study evaluates the impact of the stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) technique for solar radiation management (SRM) on the potential of photovoltaic energy in four climatic regions throughout Nigeria. The photovoltaic energy potential for the SRM scenario (PVE srm) and the reference database (PEV ref) were evaluated using solar radiation and temperature data from the ARISE-SAI-1.5 model and from the MERRA-2 climate data repository, respectively. Before projecting the impact of the SAI approach on photovoltaic energy generation, the agreement between PVE srm and PVE ref was evaluated using the index of agreement metric. The analysis showed that the index of agreement had values of 0.90 in the Sahel, 0.98 in the Guinea Savannah, 0.97 in the rainforest, and 0.82 in the coastal regions. Other validation metrics used also showed similar trends across the climatic regions in Nigeria. The projected analysis of the impact on photovoltaic energy generation between 2035 and 2069 indicated potential gains of + 5.20 in the Sahel, + 3.60 in the Guinea Savannah, and + 3.40 in the rainforest, but a decline of − 3.20 in the coastal region, all values in watts per square meters. In conclusion, this study reveals that the implementation of the SAI approach for solar radiation management would have a relatively gainful influence on solar power generation in the Sahel, the Guinea Savannah, the rainforest but declined effect in the coastal region. The results of this study provide valuable insights into the influence of solar radiation management and renewable energy generation in different climatic zones across Nigeria.
Morrissey, W. (2024). Avoiding atmospheric anarchy: Geoengineering as a source of interstate tension. Environment and Security, 27538796231221597. Abstract Idealized climate modeling of geoengineering, notably including stratospheric aerosol injection, routinely frames the practice as the provision of a global public good in the absence of geopolitical context. This study argues that the situation of geoengineering governance within individual state governments combined with the technology’s substantial, unforeseeable consequences present a potential security dilemma that heightens tensions between states and risks conflict, including potential environmental catastrophe. Initially, there is a brief overview of geoengineering technology and the associated concerns before highlighting four elements of the technology that potentially generate interstate tension: the potential for independent action, low costs, ambiguity surrounding deployment, and the possibility of counter-geoengineering. This is followed by a discussion of four speculative geoengineering scenarios intended to illustrate the complexity of potential geoengineering impacts on states’ strategic thinking and risks associated with solar geoengineering. The article outlines four scenarios derived by isolating the availability of counter-geoengineering and the controllability of geoengineering as drivers for contesting strategic climate outcomes. The scenarios emphasize possible geopolitical tensions that could emerge under geoengineering, encouraging further study of potential geoengineering efforts within international security.
Bodai, T., Lembo, V., Aneesh, S., Lee, S., Ishuzu, M., & Franz, M. O. (2024). The minimal geoengineering problem concerning the Paris 2015 agreement. Abstract There is a palpable shift in mainstream attitude towards geoengineering technologies, seen now as potential parts of a climate policy mix. Still, concerning solar radiation management (SRM) in particular, because of the known and unknown undesirable side-effects of various engineering implementations of theirs, it is important to know what is the minimal intervention that can achieve a certain goal. Such questions lead mathematically to inverse problems. Solving them is feasible only with lightweight models of the climate system, various types of which are nowadays often referred to as emulators – some more accurate than others. Here we develop an emulator using linear and nonlinear response theory and apply it to the minimal SRM problem concerning the Paris 2015 climate agreement, say, with the aim of constraining the global mean surface temperature below a certain limit. Our results suggest that SRM geoengineering, most commonly envisaged as sulfate aerosol injection, will likely have to be part of our climate policy mix, because realistic CO2 abatement effort to come alone cannot restrict global temperatures below the coveted 1.5 ◦C change or below even higher levels of change. Minimal sulfate use for the 1.5 ◦C limit is very likely to dictate immediate and rather abrupt deployment. However, SRM would be no use to achieve such a goal if the geoengineeringfree “asymptotic” temperature is not below the target limit, as it would then need – in the absence of CDR – maintaining SRM “indefinitely”. The latter could be the case even if the temperature response to an anthropogenic CO2 emission pulse is nonmonotonic, and it would be certainly the case if it is monotonic. We show that the model that we use is near the boundary in parameter space between monotonic and nonmonotoninc temperature responses. In the unfortunate case of monotonicity concerning the real Earth system, the only use of SRM would be “buying time” to develop CDR.
Liang, J., & Haywood, J. (2023). Future changes in atmospheric rivers over East Asia under stratospheric aerosol intervention. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 23(2), 1687-1703. Abstract Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are closely associated with historical extreme precipitation events over East Asia. The projected increase in such weather systems under global warming has been extensively discussed in previous studies, while the role of stratospheric aerosol, particularly for the implementation of stratospheric aerosol intervention (SAI), in such a change remains unknown. Based on an ensemble of the UK Earth System Model (UKESM1) simulations, here we investigate changes in the frequency of ARs and their associated mean and extreme precipitation under a range of climate forcing, including greenhouse gas emission scenarios of high (SSP5–8.5) and medium (SSP2–4.5) levels, the deployment of SAI geoengineering (G6sulfur), and solar dimming (G6solar). The result indicates a significant increase in AR frequency and AR-related precipitation over most of East Asia in a warmer climate, and the most pronounced changes are observed in southern China. Comparing G6solar and both the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) scenarios, the G6sulfur simulations indicate that SAI is effective at partly ameliorating the increases in AR activity over the subtropical region; however, it may result in more pronounced increases in ARs and associated precipitation over the upper-midlatitude regions, particularly northeastern China. Such a response is associated with the further weakening of the subtropical westerly jet stream under SAI that favours the upper-midlatitude AR activity. This is driven by the decreased meridional gradient of thermal expansion in the mid–high troposphere associated with aerosol cooling across the tropical region, though SAI effectively ameliorates the widespread increase in thermal expansion under climate warming. Such a side effect of SAI over the populated region implies that caution must be taken when considering geoengineering approaches to mitigating hydrological risk under climate change.
Hendrickson, C., Butcherine, P., Tagliafico, A., Ellis, S. L., Harrison, D. P., & Kelaher, B. P. (2024). Combining shading and lipid-enriched diets as an adaption tool to reduce coral bleaching. Journal of experimental marine biology and ecology, 572, 151988. Abstract Mass coral bleaching driven by climate change impacts coral reefs globally. As net zero emissions and a return to pre-industrial global temperatures are unlikely to occur in the near future, there is an urgent need to engineer intervention methods that can mitigate the risk of coral bleaching at different scales. Coral dietary enrichment and shade-based irradiance reduction have each been shown to reduce coral bleaching. Here, we tested the hypothesis that combining these two intervention methods could further reduce the risk and impact of bleaching using an outdoor experiment with fragments of the coral Hydnophora exesa. The experiment was set up over three orthogonal factors: shade (2 levels – 4 h of 30% shade and no shade), temperature (2 levels – 32.6 °C and 26.4 °C) and food type (2 levels – fatty-acid enriched and non-enriched Artemia). The provision of 30% shade for 4 h did not significantly affect any of the measured bleaching response variables, likely due to the low natural irradiance for all treatments throughout the experiment. Significant bleaching of H. exesa fragments occurred in the high-temperature treatments after 18 days of thermal stress. Feeding the corals Artemia enriched with omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids had a minor impact on the proportion of fatty acids in the corals and resulted in a decline in chlorophyll a content and symbiont density. Overall, these results suggest that coral PUFA enrichment may have limited potential as a mitigation tool to minimise the risk of mass coral bleaching as numerous factors such as species and lipidome composition must be considered. In addition, we recommend that irradiance values higher than the natural light levels recorded during our experiment are required to effectively test the ability of shading technologies designed to reduce mass bleaching of coral reefs.
WEB POSTS
POLICY BRIEF
DISCUSSIONS
PODCASTS“This episode’s guest is Janos Pasztor. He has four decades of work experience in the areas of energy, environment, climate change, and sustainable development, including roles as Executive Director of the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (C2G) and UN Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Change. In this episode, we explore the political lens of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and solar radiation management (SRM), discussing the progress of CDR and SRM discourse, as well as its challenges and controversies.”
“Greenland’s Jakobshavn glacier is one of the fastest deteriorating glaciers in the world. But some researchers say they may have figured out a way to save it.”
YOUTUBE VIDEOSSolar Climate Intervention Virtual Symposium 8 (Dr. Sandro Vattioni & Jessica Wan) | Solar Climate Intervention Talks “Solar Climate Intervention Virtual Symposium 8 Dr. Sandro Vattioni (ETH Zurich, Switzerland): "Chemical and climatic impacts of solid particles for stratospheric solar climate intervention." Jessica Wan (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA): "Diminished efficacy of regional marine cloud brightening in a warmer world".”
Janos Pasztor on global climate policy and geoengineering | Challenging Climate “This episode’s guest is Janos Pasztor. He has four decades of work experience in the areas of energy, environment, climate change, and sustainable development, including roles as Executive Director of the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (C2G) and UN Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Change. In this episode, we explore the political lens of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and solar radiation management (SRM), discussing the progress of CDR and SRM discourse, as well as its challenges and controversies.”
How Much does Latitude Matter for Stratospheric Aerosol Injection? | Matthew Henry “How Much does Latitude Matter for Stratospheric Aerosol Injection? Co-authors : Jim Haywood and Ewa M Bednarz”
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