A set of geo-engineering strategies intended to minimize global warming by reflecting the sun's energy away from the earth.
Solar radiation management (SRM) is a subfield of geoengineering focused on altering the Earth's climate by modifying how sunlight interacts with the planet. Two primary approaches within SRM include albedo modification, which involves increasing the Earth's reflectivity, and solar irradiation mitigation, which focuses on reducing sunlight absorption. The strategy of solar management, in contrast, involves either limiting the amount of sunlight reaching Earth’s surface (solar mitigation) or reflecting some of the sunlight that does reach the surface back into space (albedo modification). One suggested approach to solar radiation management is to increase Earth’s albedo artificially to lower the planet’s temperature by reflecting sunlight into space so that it cannot be absorbed. Furthermore, because such a shield would make no modifications to the atmosphere or to land on Earth, it would not have the possible negative environmental impacts that other approaches to solar radiation management would have.
This paper presents an approach to Solar Radiation Management (SRM) using a tethered solar shield at the modified gravitational L1 Lagrange point.
What Kinds of SRM Methods Are Available (and What Do They Involve)? · Space-based Geoengineering · Stratospheric Aerosol Injection · Surface Albedo Modification.
This paper provides a chronological review of the governance history of solar radiation management (SRM), also called solar geoengineering,
Solar Radiation Management: Implications for Asia www.etcgroup.org November 2018 4 Computer Model Scenario Results for Stratospheric Aerosol Injection experiments Models indicate that under all the proposed SRM experiments analysed by a geoengineering comparison project (GeoMIP) (see Box 3), the mean temperature of the planet could be reduced to pre-industrial levels, or to the mean temperature between 2010 and 2029 (RCP4.5; experiments G3 and G4). A 2015 study looking at six different SRM schemes – crop albedo modification, desert albedo modification, ocean albedo modification, sea-spray geoengineering, cirrus cloud thinning, and stratospheric sulphur dioxide injections – showed that potentially damaging changes in regional precipitation were a common feature (Crook et al., 2015).5 An earlier study found that albedo enhancement over land6 decreased global precipitation by 13 percent, decreased runoff over land by 22 percent, and resulted in reduced soil water (Bala and Nag, 2012).
Methods · Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) · Marine cloud brightening (MCB) · Cirrus cloud thinning (CCT) · Reflective surfaces · Space-based methods.
For example, geoengineering includes the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (also called Carbon Dioxide Removal – CDR) through methods such as direct air capture and storage, ocean iron fertilization, or ocean alkalinity enhancement. These activities are referred to as **Solar Geoengineering** or **Solar Radiation Modification (SRM).** Most proposed solar radiation modification techniques involve adding material to the atmosphere to increase the amount of incoming sunlight reflected back to space. Marine solar radiation management (mSRM) techniques, on the other hand, involve adding materials to ocean waters, sea ice, or the lower atmosphere to increase the amount of solar radiation reflected at or near the ocean's surface to limit surface warming or sea ice melt. * *Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB)* – adding particles, such as sea spray, to the lower atmosphere (near the surface) to increase the reflectivity of clouds over the ocean. Another subset of geoengineering activities intends to cool the Earth by intentionally modifying the concentration of certain gases in the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide.