Marine-cloud brightening: an airborne concept

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https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2515-7620/ad2f71

Authors 

Christian Claudel, Andrew John Lockley, Fabian Hoffmann and Younan Xia

Accepted Manuscript online 2 March 2024 

DOI 10.1088/2515-7620/ad2f71

Abstract

Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) is a proposed Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) geoengineering technique to enhance Marine Boundary Layer (MBL) cloud albedo. Extant proposals consider 10,000-100,000 autonomous ships spraying seawater, generating and dispersing sea salt nanoparticles. Alternatively, this paper proposes industrially manufacturing NaCl nanoparticles using ethanol anti-solvent brine precipitation. With desiccation, size optimization and narrowed size distribution, aerosol mass flux reduces by 500x (17x for dry mass flux). This facilitates Unmanned Aerial Vehicle delivery (e.g. MQ-9 Reaper Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). Increased speed and wake turbulence improves areal coverage per vehicle vs. ships --- reducing fleet size. Utilizing extant airframe designs improves vehicle Technology Readiness Level (TRL) --– potentially improving system operational cost (est. $40B per year) and lead time. This approach further reduces energy requirements (5x less), technical risk and system complexity. Increased readiness amplifies proliferation risk --- particularly for inexpensive regional heatwave and hurricane suppression --- making governance more urgent.

Source: IOP SCIENCE