The Earth’s poles are warming several times faster than the global average. In fact, both the Arctic and Antarctic reported record heat waves earlier this year. Melting ice and collapsing glaciers at high latitudes will accelerate sea level rise around the Earth. Fortunately, refreezing the poles with less incoming sunlight is feasible and very cheap. This is according to new research published in his IOP Publishing on September 15, 2022. Environmental research communication.
Scientists point to a potential future geoengineering program in which high-flying jets spray microscopic aerosol particles into the atmosphere at 60 degrees north and 60 degrees north latitude, near Anchorage and the southern tip of Patagonia. Did. When injected at an altitude of 43,000 feet / 13,000 meters (above the cruising altitude of an airliner), these aerosols slowly drift poleward, slightly shading the surface below.
Lead author Wake Smith says, “There are widespread and wise apprehensions about deploying aerosols to cool the planet.”Smith is a lecturer[{” attribute=””>Yale University and a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School.
Particle injections would be performed seasonally in the long days of the local spring and early summer. Both hemispheres could be serviced by the same fleet of jets, ferrying to the opposite pole with the change of seasons.
Pre-existing military air-to-air refueling tankers such as the aged KC-135 and the A330 MMRT don’t have enough payload at the required altitudes. However, newly designed high-altitude tankers would prove much more efficient. A fleet of roughly 125 such tankers could loft a payload sufficient to cool the regions poleward of 60°N/S by 2°C per year. This would be enough to return them close to their pre-industrial average temperatures. Annual costs are estimated at $11 billion. This is less than one-third the cost of cooling the entire planet by the same 2°C magnitude and just a tiny fraction of the cost of reaching net zero emissions.
“Game-changing though this could be in a rapidly warming world, stratospheric aerosol injections merely treat a symptom of climate change but not the underlying disease. It’s aspirin, not penicillin. It’s not a substitute for decarbonization,” says Smith.
Cooling at the poles would provide direct protection for only a small portion of the planet. However, the mid-latitudes should also experience some temperature reduction. Since less than 1% of the global human population lives in the target deployment zones, a polar deployment would entail much less direct risk to most of humanity than a global program.
“Nonetheless, any intentional turning of the global thermostat would be of common interest to all of humanity and not merely the province of Arctic and Patagonian nations,” adds Smith.
In summary, the current study is just a small and preliminary step towards understanding the costs, benefits, and risks of undertaking climate intervention at high latitudes. It provides further reason to believe that such tools could prove useful both in preserving the cryosphere near the poles and slowing global sea level rise.
Reference: “A subpolar-focused stratospheric aerosol injection deployment scenario” by Wake Smith, Umang Bhattarai, Douglas G MacMartin, Walker Raymond Lee, Daniele Visioni, Ben Kravitz and Christian V Rice, 15 September 2022, Environmental Research Communications.
DOI: 10.1088/2515-7620/ac8cd3