Diminished efficacy of regional marine cloud brightening in a warmer world

Jessica S. Wan (), Chih-Chieh Jack Chen, Simone Tilmes, Matthew T. Luongo, Jadwiga H. Richter and Katharine Ricke ()
Additional contact information
Jessica S. Wan: University of California San Diego
Chih-Chieh Jack Chen: National Center for Atmospheric Research
Simone Tilmes: National Center for Atmospheric Research
Matthew T. Luongo: University of California San Diego
Jadwiga H. Richter: National Center for Atmospheric Research
Katharine Ricke: University of California San Diego

Nature Climate Change, 2024, vol. 14, issue 8, 808-814

Abstract: Abstract Marine cloud brightening (MCB) is a geoengineering proposal to cool atmospheric temperatures and reduce climate change impacts. As large-scale approaches to stabilize global mean temperatures pose governance challenges, regional interventions may be more attractive near term. Here we investigate the efficacy of regional MCB in the North Pacific to mitigate extreme heat in the Western United States. Under present-day conditions, we find MCB in the remote mid-latitudes or proximate subtropics reduces the relative risk of dangerous summer heat exposure by 55% and 16%, respectively. However, the same interventions under mid-century warming minimally reduce or even increase heat stress in the Western United States and across the world. This loss of efficacy may arise from a state-dependent response of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation to both anthropogenic warming and regional MCB. Our result demonstrates a risk in assuming that interventions effective under certain conditions will remain effective as the climate continues to change.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-024-02046-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcli:v:14:y:2024:i:8:d:10.1038_s41558-024-02046-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/nclimate/

DOI: 10.1038/s41558-024-02046-7

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Climate Change is currently edited by Bronwyn Wake

More articles in Nature Climate Change from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().