To combat climate change they propose to dry out the stratosphere

Global warming has been an indisputable reality for some time now. We are suffering the effects on the climate and everything indicates that if we don’t do something quickly, this will happen Everything will get worse before it gets better.

And in an attempt to at least reduce the effects of climate change, scientists They are proposing several action plans while we hope that politicians around the world agree on the basic solution. It doesn’t inspire much confidence that they will do so anytime soon.

Now, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has proposed dehydrate the stratosphere to help cool the planet and thus counteract the increase in temperatures due to climate change.

This was announced by the US organization. “This is a strategy that could freshen the atmosphere and counteract the harmful effects of global warming.” Although, like everyone else, it should be warned, this is a “patch” and not the solution.

While human-caused carbon dioxide emissions are shockingly the biggest driver of climate change, the water vapor It is actually the most abundant greenhouse gas; and is responsible for about half of Earth’s natural greenhouse effect, which keeps our planet habitable.

The idea, therefore, is to eliminate part of the water vapor in the atmosphere.

The strategy is called “intentional stratospheric dehydration”, and plans to plant tiny particles of ice nuclei in the wetter parts of the stratosphere 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, like a dust particle, so that ice forms,” explained Joshua Schwarz, a research physicist at NOAA’s Chemical Sciences Laboratory who originated the idea.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, involves the dispersion of small particles (known as ice nuclei) in high-altitude regions of the atmosphere that are very cold and supersaturated with water vapor. “These nuclei would increase the formation of ice crystals that otherwise would not have formed.”

“If such seeds can enter supersaturated air masses As it heads toward the stratosphere, some of the water vapor in that air will condense into ice and fall, thereby removing excess water vapor and dehydrating (at least partially) the stratosphere.”

“Scope only to a small fraction From [partículas] of air in the region would be sufficient to achieve substantial water removal,” the scientist explained.

Specifically, they identified the cold zone of the western Pacific, as the wettest and coldest point in the stratosphereand where they could implement their strategy.

“In terms of effectiveness, the Western Pacific cold spot is “the ideal ‘sweet spot'”Schwarz said.

The strategy is very far from being a feasible method to fight climate change, basically because there is not yet a technology capable of changing the course of global warming.

The same organization, in fact, underlines that drying up the stratosphere would contribute to cooling the planet “only to a small extent.” “This is a very small effect,” Schwarz said, adding that this plan alone would fail to offset much of the warming generated by CO2.

However, “intentional stratospheric dehydration” it can be valuable as an element within a broader portfolio of climate interventions and mitigation strategies, as all studied methods (e.g. stratospheric aerosol injection and marine cloud removal) have different positive and negative outcomes and different time scales of effectiveness. All of these factors influence the decision whether a method merits further study.

When it comes to making decisions about climate intervention, it will be critical that scientists have adequately explored both the methods by which humanity might 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.”