Mixed-phase regime cloud thinning could help restore sea ice

Author(s)
D Villanueva, A Possner, D Neubauer, B Gasparini, U Lohmann, M Tesche
Abstract

Cloud geoengineering approaches aim to mitigate global warming by seeding aerosols into clouds to change their radiative properties and ocurrence frequency. Ice-nucleating particles (INPs) can enhance droplet freezing in clouds, reducing their water content. Until now, the potential of these particles has been mainly studied for weather modification and cirrus cloud thinning. Here, using a cloud-resolving model and a climate model we show that INPs could decrease the heat-trapping effect of mixed-phase regime clouds over the polar oceans during winter, slowing down sea-ice melting and partially offsetting the ice-albedo feedback. We refer to this concept as mixed-phase regime cloud thinning (MCT). We estimate that MCT could offset about 25% of the expected increase in polar sea-surface temperature due to the doubling of CO

2. This is accompanied by an annual increase in sea-ice surface area of 8% around the Arctic, and 14% around Antarctica.

Organisation(s)
Department of Meteorology and Geophysics
External organisation(s)
Universität Leipzig, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
Journal
Environmental Research Letters
Volume
17
ISSN
1748-9326
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aca16d
Publication date
11-2022
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
105205 Climate change
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, Environmental Science(all), Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 13 - Climate Action
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/mixedphase-regime-cloud-thinning-could-help-restore-sea-ice(fe2645c0-eef8-4128-bd03-4d5a7ac85040).html