The first US outdoor test of a solar geoengineering technology was conducted in San Francisco Bay. A device sprayed a fine mist of aerosol particles to simulate brightening clouds and reflecting sunlight.
The machine, developed over several years, aims to spray salt aerosols into the atmosphere to alter cloud composition and cool the Earth. The immediate goal was to test its ability to consistently spray the correct size aerosols outdoors.
This research is driven by the urgency of addressing global warming. The ongoing burning of fossil fuels makes it increasingly difficult to limit warming to the target of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Solar geoengineering is being explored as a potential intervention strategy.
If the current test is successful, the next phase would involve attempting to modify clouds directly over the Earth's oceans.
A little before 9 a.m. on Tuesday, an engineer named Matthew Gallelli crouched on the deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier in San Francisco Bay, pulled on a pair of ear protectors, and flipped a switch.
A few seconds later, a device resembling a snow maker began to rumble, then produced a great and deafening hiss. A fine mist of tiny aerosol particles shot from its mouth, traveling hundreds of feet through the air.
It was the first outdoor test in the United States of technology designed to brighten clouds and bounce some of the sun’s rays back into space, a way of temporarily cooling a planet that is now dangerously overheating. The scientists wanted to see whether the machine that took years to create could consistently spray the right size salt aerosols through the open air, outside of a lab.
If it works, the next stage would be to aim at the heavens and try to change the composition of clouds above the Earth’s oceans.
As humans continue to burn fossil fuels and pump increasing amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the goal of holding global warming to a relatively safe level, 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial times, is slipping away. That has pushed the idea of deliberately intervening in climate systems closer to reality.
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