Targeted marine cloud brightening can dampen El Ni\~no
Abstract
Many record-breaking climate extremes arise from both greenhouse gas-induced warming and natural climate variability. Marine cloud brightening, a solar geoengineering strategy originally proposed to reduce long-term warming, could potentially mitigate extreme events by instead targeting seasonal phenomena, such as El Ni\~no-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). By exploiting the 2019-2020 Australian wildfire experiment-of-opportunity, we show that simulated marine cloud brightening in the southeast Pacific reproduces observed cloud changes and induces La Ni\~na-like responses. We then explore how cloud brightening timing and duration modifies the 1997-1998 and 2015-2016 El Ni\~no events. We find the earliest and longest interventions effectively restore neutral ENSO conditions and dampen El Ni\~no's impacts. Solar geoengineering that targets climate variability could complement tools such as ENSO forecasting and provide a pathway for climate risk mitigation.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2406.07853,
title = {Targeted marine cloud brightening can dampen El Ni\~no},
author = {Jessica S. Wan and John T. Fasullo and Nan Rosenbloom and Chih-Chieh Jack Chen and Katharine Ricke},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.07853},
year = {2024}
}