Global warming has been an indisputable reality for some time now.
We have been suffering its effects on the climate and everything indicates, if we do not do something quickly, that
everything will get worse before it improves.
And in the search to, at least, reduce the effects of climate change, scientists
are proposing different action plans
while we wait for politicians around the world to agree on the underlying solution.
It doesn't inspire much confidence that they will do it soon.
Now, the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has proposed
dehydrating the stratosphere
to help cool the planet and thus combat rising temperatures due to climate change.
This has been announced by the US organization.
"This is a strategy that could
cool the atmosphere
and counteract the harmful effects of global warming."
Although like all, it must be warned, it is a "patch" and not the solution.
While human-caused carbon dioxide emissions are arguably the most important driver of climate change,
water vapor
is actually the most abundant greenhouse gas;
and is responsible for about half of Earth's natural greenhouse effect, which keeps our planet habitable.
Human-caused carbon dioxide emissions are, arguably, the most important factor in climate change.
EFE/ Sascha Steinbach
The idea, then, is to remove
part of the water vapor from the atmosphere.
The strategy is called
"intentional stratospheric dehydration,"
and it involves seeding the wettest parts of the stratosphere with tiny particles of ice nuclei to encourage the formation of ice that could fall to the ground as hail.
"
Pure water vapor does not easily form ice crystals
. It would help to plant a seed, such as a dust particle, for ice to form," explained Joshua Schwarz, a research physicist at NOAA's Chemical Sciences Laboratory and author of the paper. idea.
The study, which was published in the journal Science Advances, involves dispersing small particles (known as ice nuclei) in high-altitude regions of the atmosphere that are both very cold and supersaturated with water vapor.
"These nuclei would increase the formation of ice crystals that would not have formed otherwise."
"If such seeds can be
introduced into masses of supersaturated air
headed for the stratosphere, then some of the water vapor in that air will condense into ice and fall, thus removing excess water vapor and dehydrating (at least partially) the stratosphere".
“Targeting
just a small fraction
of air [particles] in the region would be enough to achieve substantial water removal,” the scientist explained.
Specifically, they have identified the cold spot in the western Pacific, as
the wettest and coldest point in the stratosphere
, and where they could carry out their strategy.
“In terms of effectiveness, the Western Pacific Cold Spot is
the ideal 'sweet spot
,'” Schwarz said.
Man-made carbon dioxide emissions are scandalously the most important factor in climate change
The strategy is
far from being a feasible method
to combat climate change, basically because there is still no technology capable of changing the course of global warming.
In fact, the organization itself points out that drying out the stratosphere would help cool the planet
“only to a small degree.”
"It's a very small effect," Schwarz said, adding that this plan alone would not offset a large fraction of the warming generated by CO 2.
However, “intentional stratospheric dehydration”
may be valuable
as an element within a broader portfolio of climate interventions and mitigation strategies, as all methods being studied (e.g., stratospheric aerosol injection and marine clouds) have different positive and negative results and different time scales of effectiveness. All of these factors influence deciding whether a method deserves further study.
When decisions about climate intervention need to be made, it will be critical that scientists have adequately explored both the methods by which humanity could intentionally alter the climate and the broader implications of those methods.
As Schwarz points out, research like this "helps distinguish the possible from the impossible."