Solar engineering, also known as solar radiation modification (SRM), is one of two main forms of geoengineering, alongside carbon capture and storage. Rather than removing carbon from the atmosphere, it works by reflecting sunlight back into space.
The most well-studied and widely proposed method of solar geoengineering is stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI).
SAI involves using aircraft or balloons to release small amounts of a chemical such as sulfate dioxide, calcium or even diamond dust into the stratosphere, where it mixes with vapor to form aerosols that reflect sunlight back into space.
This mirrors what happens after a volcanic eruption. When Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted in 1991, for example, the resulting blast of sulfate dioxide into the stratosphere is estimated to have lowered global temperatures by about 0.6 degrees Celsius over the following 15 months.
Many researchers consider SAI the most reliable of all solar geoengineering methods.
Read the full story Can solar geoengineering solve the climate crisis?
