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Geoengineering Earth's radiation balance to mitigate CO 2 ‐induced climate change
Author(s) -
Govindasamy Bala,
Caldeira Ken
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/1999gl006086
Subject(s) - radiative forcing , earth's energy budget , environmental science , climate change , atmospheric sciences , forcing (mathematics) , greenhouse gas , climatology , climate model , cloud forcing , global warming , radiative transfer , geoengineering , solar constant , greenhouse effect , radiation , solar irradiance , physics , geology , oceanography , quantum mechanics
To counteract anthropogenic climate change, several schemes have been proposed to diminish solar radiation incident on Earth's surface. These geoengineering schemes could reverse global annual mean warming; however, it is unclear to what extent they would mitigate regional and seasonal climate change, because radiative forcing from greenhouse gases such as CO 2 differs from that of sunlight. No previous study has directly addressed this issue. In the NCAR CCM3 atmospheric general circulation model, we reduced the solar luminosity to balance the increased radiative forcing from doubling atmospheric CO 2 . Our results indicate that geoengineering schemes could markedly diminish regional and seasonal climate change from increased atmospheric CO 2 , despite differences in radiative forcing patterns. Nevertheless, geoengineering schemes could prove environmentally risky.