Weekly Solar Geoengineering Updates (05 May - 11 May 2025)
Your weekly roundup of SRM updates from past week
1. This Week’s Top SRM Highlights
2. Research Papers
3. Web Posts
4. Job Opportunities
5. SRM Projects
6. Podcasts
7. YouTube Videos
8. Upcoming Events
RESEARCH PAPER: Marine Cloud Brightening to Cool the Arctic : an Earth System Model Comparison - Preprint (ESS Open Archive)
ARIA FUNDED PROJECTS: Real-world geoengineering experiments revealed by UK agency (The Guardian)
JOB OPPORTUNITY: Senior Climate Intervention Project Manager (Center for Future Generations)
SRM NEW FUNDING: CSEi Receives $5 Million Grant from Quadrature Climate Foundation to Advance SRM Research (The University of Chicago)
WEB POST: Break Glass, Cool Planet - Why We Need to Buy Time Through Global Cooling (Inevitable & Obvious)
PODCAST: Risk-risk trade-offs - Felgenhauer (Reviewer 2 does geoengineering)
VIDEO: MEERTALK May 2025 - Thomas Ramge (MEER SRM)
Authors: Harpreet Kaur, Govindasamy Bala & Ashwin K. Seshadri
Synopsis: Radiative forcing in high latitudes causes more global warming than similar forcing in low latitudes. Using the NCAR CAM4 model, this study finds climate sensitivity is 2–3× higher when forcing is applied in high latitudes. This is due to stronger lapse rate, water vapor, and cloud feedbacks, with additional contributions from albedo and Planck responses. These results highlight the importance of forcing location for solar radiation modification strategies.
An Indigenous perspective on climate engineering
Authors: Frank Busch, Joel Krupa, Anthony Harding
Synopsis: This Perspective, co-produced by Indigenous and non-Indigenous authors, explores climate engineering—negative emissions and solar radiation management—in the context of Indigenous climate risk. It critiques oversimplified representations of “the Indigenous perspective” and emphasizes the need for nuanced, community-based engagement. The paper offers methodological guidance and practical next steps informed by decades of experience in Indigenous community development.
Ice nucleation by volcanic ash greatly alters cirrus cloud properties
Authors: Lin Lin, Xiaohong Liu, Xi Zhao, Yunpeng Shan, Ziming Ke, Kai Lyu, and Kenneth P. Bowman
Synopsis: This study presents satellite evidence that volcanic ash (VA) can modify cirrus clouds by nucleating ice heterogeneously, leading to fewer but larger ice crystals. Ash-rich eruptions cause notable shifts in cirrus properties, unlike ash-poor events. Simulations support that VA suppresses homogeneous freezing. These findings improve understanding of aerosol–ice interactions and have implications for cirrus cloud geoengineering strategies.
Marine Cloud Brightening to Cool the Arctic : an Earth System Model Comparison - Preprint
Authors: Matthew Henry, Haruki Hirasawa, Jim M. Haywood, Philip J. Rasc
Synopsis: This study compares Arctic marine cloud brightening (MCB) using sea-salt aerosols across three Earth System Models. All show Arctic cooling and sea ice preservation, with minimal impact on tropical rainfall and stable AMOC. However, aerosol-cloud uncertainties lead to large differences in required SSA amounts. The research idealizes deployment and does not assess technical, social, or environmental feasibility.
CSEi Receives $5 Million Grant from Quadrature Climate Foundation to Advance SRM Research (The University of Chicago)
Break Glass, Cool Planet - Why We Need to Buy Time Through Global Cooling (Inevitable & Obvious)
Miliband says Reforms claims of blocking sun are `conspiracy theories gone mad´ (Daily Mail)
Real-world geoengineering experiments revealed by UK agency (The Guardian)
Controversial geoengineering projects to test Earth-cooling tech funded by UK agency (nature)
Oversight Committee, ARIA’s Exploring Climate Cooling programme (ARIA)
Expert reaction to ARIA’s announcement on research projects in the Exploring Climate Cooling programme (Science Media Centre)
DeSantis Praises Bill Banning Geoengineering in Florida (PJ Media)
UK’s ARIA Announces £45m Funding for 21 “Climate Cooling” Research Projects (SRM 360)
Hope to halt climate change by thickening Arctic sea ice (The Times)
Scientists Propose Releasing 12 Million Tons of Particles Into Atmosphere to Combat Climate Change (The Hearty Soul)
The Global South Has SRM Experts – It’s Time to Listen to Them (SRM360)
UK funds geoengineering experiments as global controversy grows (E&E News)
Is Stratospheric Sulfur Injection a Realistic Way to Fight Climate Change? (Medium)
Senior Climate Intervention Project Manager at Center for Future Generations) | Brussels
"Centre for Future Generations (CFG) is an independent think-and-do tank dedicated to shaping a future where decision-makers anticipate and responsibly govern the societal impacts of rapid technological change, ensuring that emerging technologies are harnessed to serve the best interests of humanity."
Programmes Officer at The Degrees Initiative | Deadline: 05 June 2025
"The Degrees Initiative has led the world in building the capacity of developing countries to evaluate solar radiation modification (SRM)."
Scientific Writing and Publishing Lead | Deadline: 07 June 2025
"The Degrees Initiative has led the world in building the capacity of developing countries to evaluate solar radiation modification (SRM)."
Aerosol Cloud Interactions for Cooling - ACtIon4Cooling (EESA)
Satellite and Model Data to Inform Solar Radiation Modification Techniques - STATISTICS (EESA)
Risk-risk trade-offs - Felgenhauer | Reviewer 2 does geoengineering
"Tyler Felgenhauer and @geoengineering1 discuss risk-risk trade-offs. Paper: Tyler Felgenhauer, Govindasamy Bala, Mark E Borsuk, Inés Camilloni, Jonathan B Wiener, Jianhua Xu, Practical paths to risk-risk analysis of solar radiation modification, Oxford Open Climate Change, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2025, kgaf012, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfclm/kgaf012
Guest info: Tyler Felgenhauer, PhD; Senior Research Scientist; Research Director; The Duke Center on Risk; Duke University link for the RFF workshop."
What is Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB)? | Climate Reflections: The SRM360 Podcast
"In this episode of Climate Reflections: The SRM360 Podcast, host Dr. Pete Irvine discusses the sunlight reflection method (SRM) known as Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB), which involves spraying sea salt particles below the cloud base to brighten clouds and reflect sunlight. The episode explores two different MCB field experiments by scientists, and discusses the technical, scientific, and ethical challenges of MCB."
MEERTALK May 2025 - Thomas Ramge | MEER SRM
"Solar geoengineering is taboo among politicians, scientists, and the IPCC. We will most likely have to dim the sun before climate goes off the rails. It is time to give the debate on climate policy a new twist that explores geoengineering as a stopgap solution to gain time for the transition into a post-fossil age. In his talk, Thomas reflects on:
-How solar geoengineering works
-Risks, unknowns and research needed to mitigate these risks
-Why we need a new global governance structure for geoengineering
safeguarding the rights of climate-vulnerable countries
-How geoengineering should not justify burning fossil fuels
-Why we should start this debate today"
Low-Altitude High-Latitude Stratospheric Aerosol Injection | Remove and Reflect Podcast
"This episode discusses a new paper that investigates SAI as a potential method for reducing global warming by introducing particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect sunlight. The authors use climate modeling to explore the effectiveness of SAI deployments at lower altitudes and higher latitudes, which could be achieved with existing aircraft rather than requiring specially designed planes. They find that while this lower-altitude approach is technically feasible, it is less efficient than injecting at higher altitudes near the tropics, necessitating greater injection amounts for the same cooling effect and potentially increasing side effects. The study highlights that the lifetime of the aerosols is a primary factor influencing effectiveness across different injection strategies. Ultimately, the research indicates that while lower-altitude, high-latitude SAI could offer a lower barrier to entry, it presents significant drawbacks compared to higher-altitude methods."
We need nuclear weapons - STWF Bad Ideas ep 7 ft Alan Robock | WePlanet
"In this urgent and wide-ranging conversation, Mark Lynas is joined by leading climate scientist and nuclear winter expert Alan Robock to confront one of the most dangerous myths of our time: that nuclear weapons keep us safe.
Alan lays out why deterrence is a flawed and suicidal strategy, how even a "limited" nuclear war would trigger global famine and societal collapse, and why the existence of nuclear weapons means their eventual use is a matter of when, not if. They also discuss the atmospheric science of nuclear winter, parallels to the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, the threats posed by solar geoengineering, and why total nuclear abolition is not only possible — but urgently necessary.
This is a masterclass in existential risk — and why we ignore it at our peril."
The 2025 Degrees Global Forum | 12-16 May 2025 | Cape Town, South Africa
Fifteenth GeoMIP Workshop by NSF and Quadrature Climate Foundation | 16 May, 2025 | Cape Town, South Africa
Documentary screening: Plan C for Civilization at Degrees 2025 Global Forum on SRM | 13 May 2025 | Cape Town
Consultative Workshop and Science-Policy Dialogue on Solar Radiation Modification by UNEP | 19-20 May 2025 | Switzerland
Can We Afford to Ignore Solar Geoengineering? by The Transition Accelerator | 10 June 2025 | Online
Artic Repair Conference 2025 by University of Cambridge & Center for Climate Repair | 26-28 June 2025 | Cambridge UK
2025 RFF and Harvard SRM Social Science Research Workshop: Governance in a Fractured World | 04-05 September 2025 | Washington DC
11th WMO Scientific Conference on Weather Modification | 3-7 November 2025 | Pune, India
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