Weakened tropical circulation and reduced precipitation in response to geoengineering

Ferraro, A. J., Highwood, E. J. and Charlton-Perez, A. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8179-6220 (2014) Weakened tropical circulation and reduced precipitation in response to geoengineering. Environmental Research Letters, 9 (1). 014001. ISSN 1748-9326 doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/9/1/014001

Abstract/Summary

Geoengineering by injection of reflective aerosols into the stratosphere has been proposed as a way to counteract the warming effect of greenhouse gases by reducing the intensity of solar radiation reaching the surface. Here, climate model simulations are used to examine the effect of geoengineering on the tropical overturning circulation. The strength of the circulation is related to the atmospheric static stability and has implications for tropical rainfall. The tropical circulation is projected to weaken under anthropogenic global warming. Geoengineering with stratospheric sulfate aerosol does not mitigate this weakening of the circulation. This response is due to a fast adjustment of the troposphere to radiative heating from the aerosol layer. This effect is not captured when geoengineering is modelled as a reduction in total solar irradiance, suggesting caution is required when interpreting model results from solar dimming experiments as analogues for stratospheric aerosol geoengineering.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/35738
Identification Number/DOI	10.1088/1748-9326/9/1/014001
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Publisher	Institute of Physics
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