How large is the design space for  stratospheric aerosol geoengineering?

Zhang, Yan; MacMartin, Douglas G.; Visioni, Daniele; Kravitz, Ben

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-201-2022

Articles | Volume 13, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-201-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Resolving uncertainties in solar geoengineering through multi-model...

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-201-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 13, issue 1

Research article

|

25 Jan 2022

Research article |

| 25 Jan 2022

How large is the design space for stratospheric aerosol geoengineering?

Yan Zhang, Douglas G. MacMartin, Daniele Visioni, and Ben Kravitz

Data sets

Data from: How large is the design space for stratospheric aerosol geoengineering? Y. Zhang, D. G. MacMartin, D. Visioni, and B. Kravitz https://doi.org/10.7298/f1e4-sq40

Data from: Seasonally Modulated Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering Alters the Climate Outcomes D. Visioni, D. MacMartin, B. Kravitz, Y. Richter, S. Tilmes, and M. Mills https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL088337

Data from: Expanding the design space of stratospheric aerosol geoengineering to include precipitation-based objectives and explore trade-offs W. Lee, D. MacMartin, D. Visioni, and B. Kravitz https://doi.org/10.7298/d2qm-1568

CESM1(WACCM) stratospheric aerosol geoengineering large ensemble (GLENS) project S. Tilmes, J. H. Richter, B. Kravitz, D. G. MacMartin, M. J. Mills, I. Simpson, A. S. Glanville, J. T. Fasullo, A. S. Phillips, J.-F. Lamarque, J. Tribbia, J. Edwards, S. Mickelson, and S. Gosh https://doi.org/10.5065/D6JH3JXX

Short summary

Adding SO₂ to the stratosphere could temporarily cool the planet by reflecting more sunlight back to space. However, adding SO₂ at different latitude(s) and season(s) leads to significant differences in regional surface climate. This study shows that, to cool the planet by 1–1.5 °C, there are likely six to eight choices of injection latitude(s) and season(s) that lead to meaningfully different distributions of climate impacts.