Abstract: The difficulties in using conventional mitigation techniques to maintain global mean temperatures well below 2°C compared with preindustrial levels have been well documented, leading to so-called ‘climate intervention’ or ‘geoengineering’ research whereby the planetary albedo is increased to counterbalance global warming and ameliorate some impacts of climate change. In the scientific literature, the most prominent climate intervention proposal is that of stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), although proposals for marine cloud brightening (MCB) have also received considerable attention. Before any practical deployment strategy could even conceivably be considered, a comprehensive assessment of the pros and cons, perils and pitfalls of SAI and MCB needs to be performed with state-of-the-art global climate models. Owing to the complexities of representing atmospheric aerosols and their impacts on radiation and clouds, it is imperative that the performance of the models be assessed using the most appropriate natural analogues. Using a combination of satellite and surface observations, we examine the use of sulfate aerosols from explosive and effusive volcanic eruptions and smoke aerosol from intense wildfires and briefly discuss their limitations.
What is the Joint Oslo Seminar (JOS):
- Atmospheric and climate sciences have a stronghold in Oslo among the four institutions University of Oslo, the Meteorological Institute, CICERO and NILU.
- This joint seminar invites renowned international experts to contribute to an informal series of lectures, meant to create interaction with the Oslo atmospheric and climate science community on recent highlights and analysis in the field.
- Normally seminars will be held on Thursdays (12:15 pm -1pm).