Mixed-phase regime cloud thinning could help restore sea ice

Villanueva, Diego; Possner, Anna; Neubauer, David; Gasparini, Blaž; Lohmann, Ulrike; Tesche, Matthias

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aca16d

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 73 publications

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“…Cloud radiative impacts can be sensitive to aerosol ice nucleating particles (INPs) and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) (Lubin & Vogelmann, 2010;Morrison et al, 2011;Stevens et al, 2018). For example, aerosol-related processes impact ice crystal formation, growth and sedimentation, which can influence total water content, cloud reflectivity, and thus the extent to which clouds insulate the surface and trap radiation (Sullivan et al, 2022;Villanueva et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dust-driven cloud phase changes may impact summertime cooling over Arctic sea ice

Zamora,

Kahn

2024

Preprint

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Cloud phase has important impacts on Arctic surface temperatures, and there is substantial circumstantial evidence that dust aerosols have strong impacts on cloud phase over the Arctic on a regional scale. We used seven years of satellite observations and model and reanalysis products to control for co-varying meteorology, and to assess how dust and other aerosols impact cloud phase over the summertime sea ice. We focus on clouds at 3 km, where dust modeling is most accurate. Dust aerosols caused about 4.5% of clouds below -15 °C to change phase, with smaller effects at higher temperatures. Sulfate has a smaller impact on cloud phase. Dust is associated with cloud-mediated surface cooling of up to a 6.3 W m-2 below single-layer clouds at ~3 km in June. Lastly, we discuss the optimal meteorological conditions for future in situ studies to maximize insight into the mechanisms driving the observed dust effects.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dust-driven cloud phase changes may impact summertime cooling over Arctic sea ice

Zamora,

Kahn

2024

Preprint

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“Cooling credits” are not a viable climate solution

Diamond

Wanser²,

Boucher

2023

Climatic Change

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As the world struggles to limit warming to 1.5 or 2 °C below pre-industrial temperatures, research into solar climate interventions that could temporarily offset some amount of greenhouse gas-driven global warming by reflecting more sunlight back out to space has gained prominence. These solar climate intervention techniques would aim to cool the Earth by injecting aerosols (tiny liquid or solid particles suspended in the atmosphere) into the upper atmosphere or into low-altitude marine clouds. In a new development, “cooling credits” are now being marketed that claim to offset a certain amount of greenhouse gas warming with aerosol-based cooling. The science of solar climate intervention is currently too uncertain and the quantification of effects insufficient for any such claims to be credible in the near term. More fundamentally, however, the environmental impacts of greenhouse gases and aerosols are too different for such credits to be an appropriate instrument for reducing climate risk even if scientific uncertainties were narrowed and robust monitoring systems put in place. While some form of commercial mechanism for solar climate intervention implementation, in the event it is used, is likely, “cooling credits” are unlikely to be a viable climate solution, either now or in the future.

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A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North

van Wijngaarden,

Moore,

Alfthan

et al. 2024

Climatic Change

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The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased concentrations of greenhouse gases from thawing permafrost, and alterations in the key high latitude physical systems spurred many authors, and more recently international agencies and supra-state actors, to investigate “emergency measures” that might help conserve the frozen North. However, the efficacy and feasibility of many of these ideas remains highly uncertain, and some might come with significant risks, or could be even outright dangerous to the ecosystems and people of the North. To date, no review has evaluated all suggested schemes. The objectives of this first phase literature survey (which can be found in a separate compendium (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10602506), are to consider all proposed interventions in a common evaluation space, and identify knowledge gaps in active conservation proposals. We found 61 interventions with a high latitude focus, across atmosphere, land, oceans, ice and industry domains. We grade them on a simple three-point evaluation system across 12 different categories. From this initial review we can identify which ideas scored low marks on most categories and are therefore likely not worthwhile pursuing; some groups of interventions, like traditional land-based mitigation efforts, score relatively highly while ocean-based and sea ice measures, score lower and have higher uncertainties overall. This review will provide the basis for a further in-depth expert assessment that will form phase two of the project over the next few years sponsored by University of the Arctic.

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Mixed-phase regime cloud thinning could help restore sea ice

Cited by 5 publications

References 73 publications

Dust-driven cloud phase changes may impact summertime cooling over Arctic sea ice

Dust-driven cloud phase changes may impact summertime cooling over Arctic sea ice

“Cooling credits” are not a viable climate solution

A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North

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