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RESEARCH PAPER: Stratospheric Aerosol Injection Could Prevent Future Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Decline, But Injection Location is Key (AGU)
RESEARCH PAPER: Defining Scales of Field Experiments to Assess Solar Radiation Modification, with Application to Marine Cloud Brightening Studies - Preprint (ESS Open Archive)
MEETING REPORT: Finalizing experimental protocols for the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP) contribution to CMIP7 (American Meteorological Society)
UPCOMING EVENT: The state of SRM impacts science and the need for responsible research by EDF at Climate Week NYC (EDF)
PODCAST: SRM's socioeconomic cost - Bronsther & Xu (Reviewer 2 does geoengineering)
VIDEO: What’s the plan to save the planet? Christiana Figueres interviews Ricken Patel (Ricken Patel)
Read on to unpack more updates:
Solar Radiation Modification impact on precipitation and temperature extremes in Hunan, China
Authors: Haiyuan Tang, Mou Leong Tan, Zeqian Feng, Narimah Samat, Fei Zhang
Synopsis: A study on Hunan, China, assessed SRM impacts on extreme climate events using GeoMIP6 model simulations. Results show SRM reduces heavy rainfall and flood risk after 2070, though effects differ between solar and sulfur scenarios. While G6sulfur reduces cold nights, it increases consecutive dry days, offering little drought relief. Findings suggest SRM may help curb floods in subtropical regions but is less effective for drought management.
A Multivariate Space-Time Dynamic Model for Characterizing the Atmospheric Impacts Following the Mt. Pinatubo Eruption
Authors: Robert C. Garrett, Lyndsay Shand, Gabriel Huerta
Synopsis: The 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption, a natural analog for stratospheric aerosol injection, released vast sulfate aerosols that altered global surface and stratospheric temperatures. To capture its complex, region-specific impacts, researchers developed a multivariate space-time dynamic linear model using MERRA-2 data. The model, estimated via customized MCMC, applies spatial basis functions with time-varying coefficients in a VAR framework. It reveals atmospheric parameter relationships beyond univariate models, offering deeper insight into eruption-driven climate dynamics.
Stratospheric Aerosol Injection Could Prevent Future Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Decline, But Injection Location is Key
Authors: Ewa M. Bednarz, Paul B. Goddard, Douglas G. MacMartin, Daniele Visioni, David Bailey, Gokhan Danabasoglu
Synopsis: The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is weakening, with major climate risks ahead. SAI could influence its trajectory, but impacts depend on deployment details. Using CESM simulations, researchers found Northern Hemisphere SAI can stabilize AMOC by altering North Atlantic heat flux and density, while Southern Hemisphere SAI has little effect despite global cooling. Results show SAI might help avoid tipping points, but outcomes hinge on design and deeper process understanding.
Glacier Geoengineering May Have Unintended Consequences for Marine Ecosystems and Fisheries
Authors: Mark James Hopwood, Sascha Schiøtt, Hilde Oliver
Synopsis: Geoengineering schemes to curb climate impacts are widely debated, with sea level rise posing a major challenge. One proposal suggests underwater barriers to block ocean heat inflow around Antarctica and Greenland, slowing glacier melt. However, models for Greenland’s Sermeq Kujalleq glacier show such barriers could harm marine ecosystems and fisheries, raising social concerns. Effective geoengineering requires balancing technical feasibility with complex social, economic, and cultural impacts.
Defining Scales of Field Experiments to Assess Solar Radiation Modification, with Application to Marine Cloud Brightening Studies - Preprint
Authors: Sarah J. Doherty, Michael S Diamond, Robert Wood, Haruki Hirasawa
Synopsis: SRM is gaining research attention as a potential tool to reduce climate risks while greenhouse gas levels decline, but uncertainties about its effectiveness and risks remain. Current insights come mainly from natural analogues and models, both with limits. Researchers propose a framework to classify SRM field studies by scale, based on spatial extent, duration, and energy perturbation. Applied to Marine Cloud Brightening, it links study goals with study size and aids both scientific assessment and governance.
"Strategic Evaluation of Regional Solar Radiation Management: Assessing Opportunities and Challenges of Marine Cloud Brightening and Albedo Modification" - Preprint
Authors: Yang Yu
Synopsis: This paper assesses regional SRM strategies, focusing on MCB and Surface Albedo Modification (SAM). Both offer localized cooling but pose major scientific, ethical, and governance challenges. The study highlights regional differences, transboundary risks, and knowledge gaps, stressing the need for site-specific modeling, stakeholder input, and strong regulation. It calls for cautious, proactive research to guide policy, framing SRM as a complement, not substitute, to emissions cuts.
Large-Scale Climate Interventions: Carbon Dioxide Removal and Solar Radiation Management - Book Chapter
Authors: Walker Raymond Lee, Douglas MacMartin & Amanda Borth
Synopsis: This chapter asks whether anthropogenic climate change is “fixable” through large-scale interventions. It examines CDR and SRM, both aimed at restoring Earth’s energy balance. CDR directly offsets emissions but is not yet scalable or cost-effective. SRM could cool the planet by altering cloud cover or reflecting sunlight, but risks unintended ecological and societal impacts. Both approaches require further research and stakeholder consultation before deployment.
Proposed framework for defining scales of SRM field studies, as applied for the case of marine cloud brightening
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Finalizing experimental protocols for the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP) contribution to CMIP7 - Meeting Report
Authors: Daniele Visioni, Alan Robock, Kelsey E. Roberts, Walker Lee, Matthew Henry, Alistair Duffey, Haruki Hirasawa, Oriana Chegwidden, Hassaan Sipra
Synopsis: The 15th annual Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP) workshop gathered nearly 150 in-person and 10 remote participants to plan experiments for CMIP7. Unlike past meetings, it focused entirely on designing the next GeoMIP experiment set, with broad input from both long-time contributors and new participants. A preparatory document and co-developed agenda enabled researchers to share ideas and early results, fostering collaboration on future climate modeling efforts.
DSG - Legitimacy is the Goal: Going Slowly, As Quickly As Possible
ETH Zurich - Listen carefully: Teaching students to navigate science-scepticism
The Degrees Initiative - 14 Degrees-funded researchers will help to produce the next IPCC climate report
Economist - Marjorie Taylor Greene wants to stop them from making it rain
Radio Ecoshock - Is it already late? Mike MacCracken Geoengineering Now
Climate Genn - “We Can’t Be Sidelined Forever”: Why Stratospheric Aerosol Injection Must Move From Taboo to Testing
Global Coral - Geoengineering: A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Come?
c.f.g - The future, accelerated: a message from Sci-Fi author Kim Stanley Robinson
SRM's socioeconomic cost - Bronsther & Xu | Reviewer 2 does geoengineering
 | SRM's socioeconomic cost - Bronsther & Xu Reviewer 2 does geoengineering 58:23 |
"Jacob Bronsther & Yangyang Xu discuss their recent paper on the socioeconomic costs of Solar Radiation Modification. While SRM’s direct technical costs appear modest (~$18B/°C cooling), the authors argue that its broader costs are far greater. They estimate that Stratospheric Aerosol Injection could generate between $0 and $809 billion annually in side-effect harms, with potentially higher figures for Marine Cloud Brightening.
The conversation also explores SRM’s reliance on unprecedented global cooperation, the political risks of weather accountability, and the dangers of termination, which could impose major financial costs. They contrast these challenges with large-scale Carbon Dioxide Removal, noting that although CDR entails immense technical expenses, it avoids some of SRM’s political and termination risks.
The discussion highlights the complexity of weighing the full spectrum of costs and benefits when evaluating climate-engineering strategies.
Paper: Bronsther, J., & Xu, Y. (2025). The social costs of solar radiation management. npj Climate Action, 4(1), 69. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44168-025-00273-y"
Dr. Hansen's Climate Warning: It's Worse Than We Thought | Climate Emergency Forum
"The conversation highlights Hansen’s pointed critique of established climate science institutions and models. The experts delve into the underestimated role of aerosols in cooling the planet, and how recent reductions in pollution may have unintentionally triggered a surge in global temperatures. They also examine the contentious debate within the scientific community, where Hansen’s warnings are both challenged and sometimes dismissed by other prominent climate scientists. The “Faustian bargain” of phasing out fossil fuel pollution—thereby unleashing masked warming—is explained as a central and troubling aspect of our current predicament."
Stratospheric Aerosol Injection could prevent future AMOC decline, but injection location is key | Remove and Reflect Podcast
"This episode covers an article that explores how Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI), a proposed climate intervention, could impact the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a crucial global climate system component. The research highlights that the effectiveness of SAI in preventing AMOC decline is highly dependent on where the aerosols are injected, specifically their latitude. Northern Hemisphere injections are shown to restore AMOC by altering surface heat flux and temperature, while Southern Hemisphere injections have minimal impact despite achieving global cooling. The study emphasizes that initial responses are driven directly by SAI, with longer-term responses influenced by AMOC's own feedback mechanisms, underscoring the need for detailed understanding of SAI implementation specifics."
What’s the plan to save the planet? Christiana Figueres interviews Ricken Patel | Ricken Patel
"Christiana Figueres, the former head of the UN climate convention and lead negotiator of the Paris Climate Accord, interviews Ricken Patel on a new approach to saving people and planet from catastrophic climate change."
Should The Government Control Our Climate? | FULL DOCUMENTARY | Naked Science
"This documentary investigates geoengineering—radical scientific attempts to control Earth’s climate in the fight against global warming. It explores bold proposals like reflecting sunlight with aerosols and altering oceans to absorb carbon, while weighing the risks, ethics, and unintended consequences of “playing God” with the planet."
Is Cloudseeding Playing God? Trump EPA Chief Reacts | Lee Zeldin | The Glenn Beck Podcast
"What does the struggle against the deep state look like from inside one of the Left’s most cherished agencies? Glenn Beck asks the Left’s biggest nightmare—EPA chief Lee Zeldin. He’s fought in Iraq, fought in Congress, and now he’s taking a sledgehammer to entrenched special interests and even his own agency’s rebellion. He pulls back the curtain to reveal the truth about geoengineering and contrails, Obama and Biden’s green energy scams, and extreme taxpayer waste."
Stop Climate Collapse? Dr. Soumitra Das on BOLD Climate Restoration & Geoengineering | Clean Titans
"Can we truly restore our climate? In this groundbreaking Clean Titans interview, we sit down with Dr. Soumitra Das, the visionary Chairman and Executive Director of the Healthy Climate Initiative (HCI), who believes not only that we can, but that bold, scientific intervention is essential."
Dr Amadou Coulibaly: Advancing SRM Research in Mali with Degrees | The Degrees Initiative
"In this short video, Dr Amadou Coulibaly from the Rural Polytechnic Institute for Training and Applied Research in Mali, discusses his work with the Degrees Initiative and the need for more SRM research in Africa."
26 August | Online - Making sense of wildfires and solar geoengineering by SRM360
27 August | Vienna - Do we need to darken the sun? by TU Wien
30 August | Online - Climate Intervention Research and Role of Civil society by Healthy Climate Initiative
04-05 September | Washington DC - 2025 RFF and Harvard SRM Social Science Research Workshop: Governance in a Fractured World
07 September | Online - Confessions of a Climate Activist: Clean Energy Alone Can No Longer Save Us. We Need to Study Sunlight Reflection by MEER
23 September | NYC, United States - The state of SRM impacts science and the need for responsible research by EDF at Climate Week NYC (NEW)
30 September | Belgium - Grappling with accelerating climate risks - Is it time to explore research into Solar Radiation Modification? by Euractive
6 – 9 October | Online - Virtual workshop series on Stratospheric Aerosol Injection
17 October - Introducing SkyScroll by Planetary Sunshade Foundation
23 October | Helsinki - ATLAS25: Risk Management of Earth System Tipping Points by Operaatio Arktis
3-7 November | Pune, India - 11th WMO Scientific Conference on Weather Modification
15-19 December | New Orleans, Louisiana - 2025 American Geophysical Union Meeting
9-13 March 2026 | Kyoto, Japan - CMIP Community Workshop (CMIP26)
21-26 June 2026 | United States - Gordon Research Conference - Bridging Observations, Models, and Impacts in Solar Radiation Modification Research
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