Regensburg 2016 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

UP: Fachverband Umweltphysik

UP 3: Atmosphere - Aerosols

UP 3.2: Talk

Tuesday, March 8, 2016, 14:30–14:45, H41

Studying the limitations of stratospheric aerosol injections using the IPSL climate model — •Christoph Kleinschmitt^1,2, Olivier Boucher², and Ulrich Platt¹ — ¹Institute of Environmental Physics, Heidelberg University, Germany — ²Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, Paris, France

Climate Engineering (CE) is currently being discussed as an option to prevent or at least reduce the magnitude of global warming. Basically there are two types of CE: 1) removing greenhouse gases (i.e. CO₂) from the atmosphere, 2) direct modifications of the Earth’s radiation budget. Of the latter type stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) in analogy to major volcanic eruptions is probably the most prominent of the proposed techniques. Numerous modeling studies on SAI and its effect on climate have been published during recent years (e.g. in the framework of the geoengineering model intercomparison project), mostly proving its power to reduce the global mean surface temperature significantly, but also revealing potential risks and undesirable side effects on the climate system.

For a robust estimate of the cooling potential of SAI we developed a 3D aerosol model with a sectional approach fully coupled to the radiative scheme and other aspects of the IPSL climate model. This allows us to study physical effects limiting the radiative forcing, such as absorption and reemission of infrared radiation, particle growth through condensation and coagulation and changes in particle lifetime due to transport within the stratosphere. Recent results of climate simulations under various SAI scenarios will be presented.