Mitchell, David L. (2011): Cirrus Clouds and Climate Engineering

Mitchell, David L. (2011): Cirrus Clouds and Climate Engineering: New Findings on Ice Nucleation and Theoretical Basis; in: Carayannis, Elias G.: Planet Earth 2011, pp 257-288. published online

The purpose of this chapter is to describe an ERM [earth radiation management] approach pertaining to cirrus clouds and to test this hypothesis against new, more reliable cirrus cloud measurements. Like the SRM methods, this ERM method does not address ocean acidification, and effective GHG mitigation strategies along with possibly CDR methods would be needed to responsibly address the problem of global warming. This chapter is organized as follows. Section 2 provides an overview of the cirrus cloud climate engineering idea, which is described in greater detail in MF2009. Section 3 presents new research findings that test the conceptual foundation of this ERM approach. These findings are not only relevant to climate engineering, but are relevant to basic research on cloud-aerosol-climate interactions as well. Section 4 addresses the potential of over-cooling the planet and the need for climate monitoring. Some possible social, political and economic ramifications of climate engineering are discussed in Section 5, and a summary with conclusions is given in Section 6.
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