Rethinking the Susceptibility‐Based Strategy for Marine Cloud Brightening Climate Intervention: Experiment With CESM2 and Its Implications

Abstract

Abstract Previous modeling studies indicate that even though marine cloud brightening under a susceptibility‐based strategy is effective in reducing the global average surface temperature, it triggers a La Niña‐like sea‐surface temperature response with cooling mostly confined within lower latitudes. Here we explore a different cloud seeding strategy involving seeding of regions with low susceptibility, primarily over the ocean in midlatitudes during the winter. Simulations with the Community Earth System Model, version 2 reveal that because the regional forcing is weaker and more widespread, cooling is more evenly distributed over the globe. This new strategy also does not result in the La Niña‐like state seen in the other strategies.

Keywords

• marine cloud brightening
• climate intervention
• climate change