Solar Geo engineering
Despite solar geo engineering, local temperatures can continue to rise for years.
Solar geoengineering is also called solar radiation management (SRM). The term is used to describe hypothesized technologies that could theoretically prevent temperature rise by reflecting sunlight off the Earth’s surface.
Although SRM technologies can theoretically reduce global warming, they are not intended to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Commonly Proposed Solar Geoengineering Technologies-
- Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI): In this, small reflective particles called aerosols are injected into the upper atmosphere to cool the Earth.
- Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB): Under this, ships are used to spray salty water into clouds over the ocean. These salt particles act as “cloud condensation nuclei” once they enter the air. These become large and bright clouds, and reflect the sunlight.
- Ocean mirrors: Fleets of oceanic vessels are used to create millions of microscopic bubbles on the surface of the ocean.
- Cloud thinning: Cirrus clouds are removed from the atmosphere. These clouds absorb a large amount of long-wave radiation.
- Sunshade in Space: This involves sending a giant mirror or several mirrors into orbit to reflect a greater amount of sunlight.
Source – The Hindu
