Description:

Stratospheric aerosols are responsible for some of the largest rapid perturbations in climate history, from volcanic eruptions, pyrocumulus, and even asteroid impacts.  In recent years, there have been expanded discussions of geoengineering, which would involve deliberate injections of stratospheric aerosols to temporarily cool the planet.  Despite increased research attention to geoengineering, there is much we don’t know:  what are the effects and risks of geoengineering, especially on the regional scale, and how do those compare with the risks of not doing geoengineering?  This information urgently needs to be provided to policy makers so they can better assess what role, if any, geoengineering can play in discussions about how to address climate change.

In this session, we welcome contributions that will help us better understand how stratospheric aerosol geoengineering might affect the climate.  We welcome modeling and observational studies of stratospheric aerosol geoengineering or natural analogues, such as volcanic eruptions or other past stratospheric perturbations, including process-level understanding, climatic effects, and downstream societal impacts.  We also welcome contributions to help us better understand the base state and potential perturbed states of the stratosphere, including proposals for potential monitoring and measurements/instrumentation, field experiments and the risks those field experiments may pose.

A committee formed by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is preparing a report to 1) develop a detailed trans-disciplinary research agenda for better understanding solar geoengineering strategies; and 2) explore and recommend appropriate mechanisms for governing future research on these strategies. In the proposed session, members of the study committee will discuss their conclusions and recommendations, and facilitate a group discussion about what this study might mean--both for the US government action and for many other stakeholders that are interested in or actively exploring CI research and governance.