Weekly Solar Geoengineering Updates (29 June - 05 July 2026)
Weekly SRM roundup of research papers, web posts, events, jobs, projects, podcasts, videos and much more.
JUMP TO SECTION
1. This Week’s Top SRM Updates
2. Research Papers
3. Web Posts
4. AGU26 SRM Sessions
5. Job Opportunities
6. Upcoming Events
7. Podcasts
8. YouTube Videos
THIS WEEK’S TOP SRM HIGHLIGHTS
Research Paper: Accelerated European Summer Warming Driven by Atmospheric Circulation Changes in Response to Aerosol Forcing (AGU)
Research Paper: On the detectability by uninvolved parties of covert stratospheric aerosol injection programs producing transboundary impacts (IOP Science)
Research Paper: Does Global Justice Demand Solar Geoengineering? (PDC)
Job Opportunity: Postdoctoral Position: Modeling Tropospheric and Stratospheric Volcanic Sulfate Aerosols Processes (The Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique)
Upcoming Event: SRM Governance, Ethics & Africa’s Role in Global Decision-Making (Emerging Climate Frontiers)
Podcast: Inside the most sophisticated plan for solar geoengineering (Catalyst with Shayle Kann)
YouTube Video: International Law and Climate Interventions: Is there a there there? with Dan Bodansky in Cambridge (Centre for Climate Repair)
Read on to unpack more updates:
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RESEARCH PAPERS
Reframing sea-ice thickening as local adaptation, not climate intervention
Authors: Alistair Duffey, Robbie Mallett, Matthew Henry
Synopsis: This paper argues that artificial Arctic sea-ice thickening is better viewed as a local climate adaptation measure than a form of climate intervention. While the approach may help preserve ice in specific areas, the authors conclude it is unlikely to scale sufficiently to influence the Arctic or global climate in the coming decades. They also emphasize that decisions about its use should be led by communities most directly affected by sea-ice loss.
Authors: Wake Smith, Matias Alberola, Jasper G Boers, Karen H Rosenlof and Daniele Visioni
Synopsis: This paper examines whether large-scale SAI deployments could be carried out without other countries noticing. It finds that while small research experiments could remain covert, deployments large enough to influence climate would be detectable well before causing climatic impacts. Existing satellite observations and monitoring of aircraft operations could enable civilian observers and uninvolved states to identify SAI activities at an early stage.
Authors: P. J. Roldán-Gómez, M. G. Donat, G. Marcet-Carbonell, D. M. Smith
Synopsis: This study investigates why European summer temperatures have risen faster than in many other regions in recent decades. The authors link part of the warming to declining sulfate emissions since the 1980s, which altered atmospheric circulation and reduced the cooling effect of aerosols. They find climate models underestimate this response, and correcting for the bias substantially improves predictions of past and future European summer warming.
Does Global Justice Demand Solar Geoengineering?
Authors: Mac WillnersOrcid-ID, Orri Stefánsson
Synopsis: This paper critically examines the "Global Justice Argument" for researching solar geoengineering. The authors argue that because solar geoengineering cannot reverse past climate injustices, it should be viewed as a form of compensation rather than restoration. They conclude that support for the argument depends on whether climate-disadvantaged communities accept such compensation, noting that opinions remain mixed and raise important ethical and practical challenges.
Authors: Christer Persson, Peder Jonsson, Lars Söderqvist, Henrik Baltscheffsky Hexicon AB, Håkan Thorsell
Synopsis: A liquidity-flow (cash-flow) financing and governance model, FiGo, is proposed for long-term development projects and applied to a space-based Solar Radiation Modification concept, SiSU (Sunshades in Space Undertaking). SiSU aims to develop the capability to reduce up to 1% of incoming solar radiation as part of broader climate stabilization efforts aligned with the Paris Agreement. The model captures and optimizes intellectual-property returns from the growing space economy over roughly 50 years, separating governance, financing, and operations. Investment returns are designed to be independent of any eventual deployment of the sunshades.
Authors: Azfar Hussain, Huizing Liu, Abolfazl Rezaei, Ping Zhu, Daniele Visioni, Guanglang Xu, Chao Yang, Yan Ma, Tianye Cao, and Qingquan Li
Synopsis: This study assesses how warming and SRM could affect hydroclimate across Central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau, and South Asia. Climate warming intensifies temperatures, evapotranspiration, precipitation, cryosphere melt, and seasonal variability, increasing water stress in many regions. SRM generally reduces warming and hydroclimatic extremes, partially restoring water availability, soil moisture, and cryosphere processes, although precipitation responses remain mixed. Temperature-stabilized SRM scenarios prove more effective than transient approaches, but SRM cannot fully offset regional water stress.
Marine Cloud Brightening and Precipitation Responses in the Tropical Pacific Ocean - Preprint
Authors: Dr. Pornampai Narenpitak, Siriwat Kongkulsiri, et al.
Synopsis: Using simulations from three Earth system models, this study investigates how MCB in 16 ocean regions affects tropical and global climate. The Southeast and South Pacific emerge as the most effective intervention regions, producing the strongest global cooling. MCB also alters atmospheric circulation, shifts tropical rainfall, and generates remote climate effects through teleconnections, demonstrating that localized interventions can influence climate far beyond the targeted regions.
Authors: Temitope S. Egbebiyi, Temitope S. Fafure, Daniele Visioni, Romaric C. Odoulami, Babatunde J. Abiodun, Simone Tilmes, Chris Lennard, and Mark G. New
Synopsis: Researchers assessed how SAI could influence climate extremes and water availability across Africa under temperature overshoot scenarios. Model simulations show SAI consistently reduces temperature extremes, particularly in tropical regions, but its effects on precipitation vary widely by region. While some areas, such as the Sahel, become wetter, others experience mixed or drier conditions, highlighting that SAI can moderate warming but cannot uniformly address changes in Africa's water cycle.
Authors: Pan Zhao, Jingyi Chen, Yang Yang, Yue Jia, and Yang Yu
Synopsis: Using large-eddy simulations and particle dispersion modelling, this study examines how efficiently sea-salt aerosols released at the ocean surface can reach marine clouds for MCB. The results show that aerosol transport and activation are strongly influenced by cloud conditions and atmospheric turbulence, with higher-resolution simulations indicating greater aerosol activation. The findings improve understanding of a key physical constraint on the feasibility of MCB.
Impacts of Solar Radiation Modification on Extreme Climate Indices in the Philippines - Preprint
Authors: Patricia Ann Jaranilla Sanchez, Hanz Lester Cate Lunas, et al.
Synopsis: This study evaluates how SRM could influence future temperature and rainfall extremes in the Philippines using five climate models and multiple climate scenarios. Compared with non-SRM projections, SRM alters trends in extreme heat and precipitation, although impacts vary across the country's climate zones. The findings provide insights into how SRM could affect regional climate risks and inform future adaptation and policy planning.
WEB POSTS
Jan Umsonst - A short on what it means to cool down a water planet...
Peter Dynes - The White Revolution That Could Help Cool the Planet
African Tech Futures Lab - Introducing the Climate Intervention Futures Initiative: Building Conceptual Infrastructure for a New Frontier of Climate Action
New Scientist - Geoengineering could expose plane passengers to sulphuric acid
Heartlander News - ‘Terrible idea’: Top Trump official reveals how tinkering with the sun could land companies in hot water
Energy Times - Can we cool the solar geoengineering debate?
Degrees Initiative - Latin American scientists lead SRM biodiversity workshop in Bogotá
SRM360 - Risk-Risk Analysis and SRM: Moving Beyond Misunderstanding
AGU26 SRM SESSIONS
Atmospheric chemistry in the fire plume
Advances in Climate Engineering Science: Benefits, Risks, and Uncertainties
Constraining Climate Intervention Impacts Using Observations Following Natural Analogs and Laboratory Experiments
Toward a Process-Level Understanding of Stratospheric Aerosol Injection.
Aerosol Climate Intervention: From Fundamental Processes to Global Impacts
Assessing SRM Impacts on Ocean Systems: What Can Existing Tools Tell Us and What Do We Need Next?
Research and Emerging Approaches to Slow the Loss of the Cryosphere Through Mitigation and Targeted Interventions
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) Slowdown/Shutdown: Likelihood, Consequences, Response Options
Atmospheric Aerosols and Their Interactions with Clouds, Radiation, and Climate
Advances in Weather Modification and Regional Hydroclimate Intervention
JOB OPPORTUNITIES
“The Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique and Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques are seeking to recruit a postdoctoral researcher to work on modeling tropospheric and stratospheric volcanic sulfate aerosol processes.”
UPCOMING EVENTS
08 July | Online - SRM Governance, Ethics & Africa’s Role in Global Decision-Making by Emerging Climate Frontiers (NEW)
10 July | University of Cambridge, UK - Climate Repair: Can we Refreeze the Arctic? by Centre for Climate Repair
16 July | Online - Live Discussion: The History of Solar Geoengineering by SRM360 (NEW)
10-11 September | Washington, DC. - 2026 RFF and Harvard SRM Social Science Research Workshop
12-15 October | Malaysia - Global Tipping Points 2026 | Abstract Deadline: 15 May
7–11 December 2026 | San Francisco, CA - AGU26 Anuual Meeting | Abstract Submission Deadline: 05 August 2026
10-14 January 2027 | Denver, CO & Online | 19th Symposium on Aerosol–Cloud–Climate Interactions
08-09 April 2027 | United States - 2027 Solar Radiation Management Annual Meeting by Simons Foundation
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PODCASTS
Your geoengineering questions, answered! | How We Survive
“This season, we explored large-scale climate interventions that could be our last hope. One intervention in particular, solar geoengineering, made a lot of listeners’ heads spin. (We’re right there with you.)
This episode, we answer some of your most pressing questions about solar geoengineering. We get into whether solar sunshades could harm crops, what international efforts around solar geoengineering look like, and what would happen if a powerful country went rogue and put sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. Plus, we look at a solution to some of these more extreme solutions: decarbonizing.”
Inside the most sophisticated plan for solar geoengineering | Catalyst with Shayle Kann
“One of the biggest challenges with technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions is that they require mass adoption. Solar radiation management (or SRM) has the opposite problem.
By Stardust Solutions’ estimate, dispersing three million tons of reflective particles into the stratosphere could cool the planet by 1.5 degrees Celsius for the relatively small price of $30 billion; that’s less than the cost of a single hyperscale data center.
Despite concerns about such an endeavor, the company is building a proprietary particle injection system with the goal of being deployment-ready this decade. While Stardust says they won’t deploy without the explicit authorization of multiple governments, questions nonetheless remain around the safety and ethics of SRM.
In this episode, Shayle sits down with Yanai Yedvab, CEO and co-founder of Stardust, to unpack how the technology works, its potential risks, and when to deploy it.
Shayle and Yanai discuss topics like:
-Why Stardust is eschewing sulfur dioxide in favor of naturally occurring, biodegradable amorphous silica and calcite particles
-How Stardust’s technology incorporates real-time testing.
-Stardust’s commitment to only deploying under strict international regulation.
-How the company balances the risk that solar geoengineering will reduce the economic incentive to decarbonize heavy industries with the imperative of an immediate climate solution.
-Why Stardust structured itself as a private company rather than an academic or non-profit lab.”
YOUTUBE VIDEOS
“May we engineer the climate? Professor Bodansky is a leading authority on international environmental law generally, and global climate change law in particular. He has previously served as the Climate Change Coordinator and attorney-advisor at the U.S. Department of State. His books, including “The Art and Craft of International Environmental Law”, and “International Climate Change Law” have received highly prestigious awards in the field of environmental governance.”
Live Discussion: How Should Solar Geoengineering Research Be Governed? | SRM360
Then vs now | Arctic Reflections
“What a difference a few months can make. The conditions in Qikiqtarjuaq now are a world away from what they were when we were out thickening the ice in February. As the temperatures rises, the melting snow produces melt-ponds, which eventually drain through the sea ice.”
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2 notes:
1. It's gotta be Monday. I get the weekly srm and cdr reports on that day religiously. So, If I lost all track of time at least I'll know when it's Monday. Andrew is punctual.
2. Just fast reading the headlines I do see a grave injustice being done by SAI proponents. They equate 100% SRM=SAI and lack humility cause for justice in other SRM methodologies. If people don't want SRM because the don't want SAI that is an injustice to MCB and general Albedo Enhancement which are 100% SAI as well.
I really hope when the SAI community conveys their message to ALWAYS say it is one of several SRM methodologies.
I like SAI. But I don't like thr misguidance.