Sea-spray geoengineering in the HadGEM2-ES earth-system model: radiative impact and climate response

摘要

The radiative impact and climate effects of geoengineering usingsea-spray aerosols have been investigated in the HadGEM2-ES Earthsystem model using a fully prognostic treatment of the sea-sprayaerosols and also including their direct radiative effect. Twodifferent emission patterns were considered, one to maximisethe direct effect in clear skies, the other to maximise theindirect effects of the sea-spray on low clouds; in both casesthe emissions were limited to 10% of the ocean area. While the directeffect was found to be significant, the indirect effects on cloudswere much more effective in reducing global mean temperature aswell as having less of an impact on global mean precipitation perunit temperature reduction.The impact on the distribution of precipitation wasfound to be similar in character, but less in degree, to thatsimulated by a previous study using a much simpler treatment of thisgeoengineering process.