What's New
As the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continue to increase and climate change impacts become more costly, the scientific community is redoubling efforts to investigate the potential risks and benefits of artificially shading Earth’s surface to slow global warming.
Marine cloud brightening (MCB) proposals involve the injection of salt spray into shallow marine clouds to brighten them, increasing their reflection of sunlight and reducing the amount of heat absorbed by the water below.
A group of 31 leading atmospheric scientists, among them PMEL atmospheric chemist Patricia Quinn, have offered a consensus physical science research roadmap to build the knowledge base needed to evaluate the viability of MCB approaches. Their roadmap is described in a new paper published in the journal Science Advances.
"Interest in MCB is growing, but policymakers currently don’t have the information they need to reach decisions about if and when MCB should be deployed,” said lead... more
PMEL in the News
The world’s oceans have now experienced an entire year of unprecedented heat, with a new temperature record broken every day, new data shows.
After a twelve-month set of climate records driven by global warming it is time to take stock of how we’re impacting the planet as a species. One of the driving forces behind a record year of global warming is the now waning El Niño system. With its counterpart, La Niña, due to pick up in 2024,...
On a windy day in October 2013, a small team of engineers and boatbuilders watched the first wind-powered ocean drone disappear over the horizon, bound for Hawaii 2,200 nautical miles away. That journey took 34 days. Fast forward 10 years, and Saildrone’s fleet of uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs...
Feature Publication
Story courtesy of Clara Deck, NOAA Climate Program Office
Research has long shown that ocean surface temperatures can influence the atmosphere. Over the past twenty years, researchers have been studying how the atmosphere reacts to changing ocean temperatures globally, sparking debates on the exact mechanisms at play.
Using advanced tools... more