New cloud geoengineering research casts doubts: 70x less effective & smallest salt aerosols increase warming

Marine cloud seeding is one of the best documented geoengineering proposals. It is centred around the idea that some forms of clouds tend to have a net cooling effect on the Earth’s climate, by increasing albedo or reflectivity.

Our regular visitors also know the infrared absorption of clouds (on average) could outweigh increased reflectivity and thus cloud increases could actually speed up warming.

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Today’s paradox: current Arctic ozone depletion sign of global warming

The WMO today reports rapid and record-breaking thinning of the ozone layer over the Arctic region over the course of this winter and early spring – with now 40 percent of it gone. Unusually low temperatures in the stratosphere, even cold records, are at fault – creating conditions whereby ice crystals form in so called polar stratospheric clouds.

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New organic aerosol science on the horizon

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An estimated 68,000 barrels of oil were released to the sea surface every day during the five month long leak – in addition to large amounts of methane. The environmental disaster that was the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill in 2010 has however provided scientists with an unexpected opportunity to learn about the formation processes of atmospheric particles, known as aerosols.

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