Weekly Solar Geoengineering Updates (19 May - 25 May 2025)
Your weekly roundup of SRM updates from past week
1. This Week’s Top SRM Highlights
2. Research Papers
3. SRM Reports
4. Web Posts
5. SRM Projects
6. Job Opportunities
7. Upcoming Events
8. YouTube Videos
RESEARCH PAPER: A Framework for Minimizing Remote Effects of Regional Climate Interventions: Cooling the Great Barrier Reef Without Teleconnections (AGU)
RESEARCH PAPER: A Climate Intervention Dynamical Emulator (CIDER) for Scenario Space Exploration — Preprint (EGU)
REPORT: Dimming the sun; brightening clouds; planting forests: would Britons support geoengineering to combat climate change? (You Gov UK)
WEB POST: Florida bill would ban ‘chemtrails’ and ‘geoengineering.’ But what are they? (Yahoo)
JOB OPPORTUNITY: Atmospheric Scientist (Reflective)
UPCOMING EVENTS: High-Latitude/Low-Altitude Funding Opportunity Q&A (Reflective)
Read on to unpack more updates:
Authors: Vaishanavi Kurup
Synopsis: This study assessed zeolite-based aerosols for dual-function Stratospheric Aerosol Injection—aiming to combine solar radiation management with CO₂ capture. Under stratospheric conditions, CO₂ adsorption dropped by over 99.97% compared to ground-based DAC, and effective radiative forcing would need over 10⁹ micro-scale units. Zeolites are thus unsuitable for airborne CO₂ capture, but the findings clarify key limitations and guide future climate intervention research.
Authors: Will Krantz, J. David Neelin, Fiaz Ahmed
Synopsis: This study presents a modeling framework to assess risks of Marine Cloud Brightening by combining maximal and realistic intervention scenarios. Using the Community Earth System Model, researchers simulate seasonal cooling over the Great Barrier Reef. Results show local climate goals can be met with limited intervention, minimizing risks to tropical convection and avoiding harmful remote effects. The approach helps balance ecological protection with global climate safety.
Authors: Kai Liu, Junhui He
Synopsis: Researchers developed a durable, eco-friendly superhydrophobic coating for passive radiative cooling using BaSO₄ nanoparticles, PDMS microspheres, hydrophobic silica, and a water-based binder. It reflects 97.1% of sunlight, emits 95.4% infrared, and cools up to 10.4 °C below ambient. The coating resists dust, wear, and corrosion, is repairable, and can be easily applied to various surfaces, offering strong potential for energy-efficient outdoor cooling applications.
Penguin guano is an important source of climate-relevant aerosol particles in Antarctica
Authors: Matthew Boyer, Lauriane Quéléver, Zoé Brasseur, Barry McManus, Scott Herndon, et al.
Synopsis: Ammonia, undermeasured in the atmosphere, plays a key role in Antarctic climate processes. New observations from coastal Antarctica reveal penguin colonies as major ammonia sources, with minimal contribution from the ocean. Ammonia, along with sulfur compounds and dimethylamine from guano, drives new particle formation—boosting rates up to 10,000×—and enhances cloud formation and cools coastal Antarctica. These findings highlight the climate impact of penguin and ocean ecosystems.
Authors: Abolfazl Rezaei, John Christopher Moore, Simone Tilmes, Khalil Karami
Synopsis: Using the CESM2(WACCM6) model, researchers evaluated two SAI scenarios—Geo-SAI and G6Sulfur—for their ability to offset hydrological impacts under the high-emission SSP5-8.5 pathway. Geo-SAI stabilizes warming at 1.5°C, reversing many global and regional water cycle changes, while G6Sulfur achieves more limited benefits. Both improve water storage in arid regions but only partially restore water availability in wetter zones. Runoff reductions and vegetation feedbacks remain key challenges.
A Climate Intervention Dynamical Emulator (CIDER) for Scenario Space Exploration — Preprint
Authors: Jared Farley, Douglas G. MacMartin, Daniele Visioni, Ben Kravitz, Ewa Bednarz, Alistair Duffey, and Matthew Henry
Synopsis: Researchers developed CIDER, a climate emulator that models global and regional effects of various Stratospheric Aerosol Injection scenarios, including coordinated and uncoordinated deployments. Trained on Earth System Model data, CIDER accurately estimates temperature and precipitation responses, even under complex multi-actor scenarios. It enables rapid exploration of SAI strategies and could be integrated with socio-economic models to assess broader impacts.
You Gov UK - Dimming the sun; brightening clouds; planting forests: would Britons support geoengineering to combat climate change?
The University of Chicago - Planetary Aerosol Geoengineering Research Illuminates Earthbound Climate Engineering
SCIAM - Inside the Bold Geoengineering Work to Refreeze the Arctic’s Disappearing Ice
Swissinfo.ch - Is solar radiation management worth the risk for climate-vulnerable countries?
SRM360 - Degrees Global Forum 2025: A Growing Field Finding Its Voice
Mancunion - Geo-engineering the atmosphere: How can science buy us time in the Climate race?
David Suzuki Foundation - The promises and perils of geoengineering
MSN - Could Solar Geoengineering Backfire on the Planet?
Yahoo - Florida bill would ban ‘chemtrails’ and ‘geoengineering.’ But what are they?
UK parliament - UK Government Responds to Geoengineering Ban Petition Signed by 150,000+ Citizens Ahead of Parliament Debate on 23 June
Human Readable - Reflecting on — and for — our Future
Scientia - Cloud Dynamics Over the Southern Ocean: Unravelling Nature’s Marine Cloud Brightening
Atmospheric Scientist at Reflective | Remote, San Francisco, California, United States
"Sunlight reflection may be the only available option, alongside dramatic emissions reductions, adaptation, and rapid scaling of carbon removal, to rapidly limit many climate impacts over the coming decades. But we don’t know nearly enough about it to make a scientifically-informed decision about potential deployment – and we’re not on a trajectory for rapid, legitimate decision making.
Reflective is a philanthropically-funded initiative to develop the necessary knowledge base and do the requisite technology research and development, urgently and responsibly."
28 May 2025 | Online - High-Latitude/Low-Altitude Funding Opportunity Q&A by Reflective
31 May | London, UK - SoTA Weather Control & Geo-engineering Hackathon by Matvey Boguslavskiy & Jamie
06 June | Online - Introducing SRM: Current Knowledge and Future Challenges by Co-Create
10 June | Online - Can We Afford to Ignore Solar Geoengineering? by The Transition Accelerator
17 June | Germany - ACtIon4Cooling & STATISTICS workshop on Solar Radiation Modification
26-28 June | Cambridge UK - Artic Repair Conference 2025 by University of Cambridge & Center for Climate Repair
04-05 September | Washington DC - 2025 RFF and Harvard SRM Social Science Research Workshop: Governance in a Fractured World
3-7 November | Pune, India - 11th WMO Scientific Conference on Weather Modification
Subscribe to the Solar Geoengineering Events Calendar by adding this link to your default calendar:
https://ics.teamup.com/feed/ks64mmvtit583eitxx/0.ics
"In this Climate Solutions News interview, host Dominic Shales speaks with Kelly Wanser, Executive Director of SilverLining, about the critical loss of atmospheric monitoring capabilities in both the US and UK. From NOAA’s potential lab closures to the UK Met Office dropping key aerosol programmes, these decisions are creating dangerous blind spots at the worst possible time.
Kelly explains why this data matters—not just for weather forecasts, but for everything from AI-driven climate modelling to preparing for future climate interventions like solar radiation modification (SRM). She also breaks down what SRM is, what it isn’t, and why research—not deployment—is where SilverLining is focused."
"HPAC SC Coordinator Dennis Garrity and other HPAC members report from May 12-16, 2025 SRM Degrees Conference Capetown, South Africa."
Zeolite Aerosol Infeasibility for Stratospheric Climate Intervention | Remove and Reflect Podcast
This episode covers a research article that explores the feasibility of using zeolite-based aerosols as a dual-purpose approach for climate intervention in the stratosphere. The proposed system aimed to combine solar radiation management by reflecting sunlight with carbon dioxide capture at high altitudes. Through modeling and simulations under stratospheric conditions, the study found that zeolites are not effective for CO₂ removal in that environment and the reflective effect requires an unrealistically large deployment area to be impactful. Despite the mechanical feasibility of the delivery system, the material's performance at altitude makes this dual-function concept currently impractical. The findings contribute to understanding the limitations of certain geoengineering strategies and suggest focusing on alternative materials or distinct approaches for solar radiation management and carbon removal.
Paper: Kurup, V. (2025). Assessing the Feasibility of Zeolite-Based Dual-Function Aerosols for Stratospheric Carbon Capture and Solar Radiation Management. [https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6656294/v1]
Note: This audio is AI-generated
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