Identification

Title

Marine cloud brightening climate intervention is simulated by CESM2 under a susceptibility-based strategy under SSP2-4.5

Alternative title(s)

d314006

Abstract

<p>The efficiency of marine cloud brightening in cooling Earth's surface temperature is investigated by using a medium ensemble of simulations with the Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2). Various cloud seeding schemes based on susceptibility are examined to determine what area extent will be required to induce 1.5 degrees C cooling under SSP2-4.5. The results indicate that cloud seeding over 5% of the ocean area is capable of achieving this goal. Under this seeding scheme, cloud seeding is mainly deployed over lower latitudes where strong surface temperature and precipitation responses are induced. The simulations also reveal that the 5% cloud seeding scheme reduces precipitation over the ocean, but enhances precipitation over land, with an overall reduction in global precipitation.</p> <p>Previous modeling studies indicate that even though marine cloud brightening under a susceptibility-based strategy is effective in reducing the global average surface temperature, it can induce several highly undesirable outcomes. Under such marine cloud brightening intervention, a La Nina-like sea-surface temperature response is triggered with cooling mostly confined within lower latitudes. It is likely to pose a threat to disrupt the El Nino Southern Oscillation.</p> <p>A different cloud seeding strategy is explored to alleviate such undesirable outcomes. It is hypothesized that deployment of marine cloud brightening over broader regions with low susceptibility to cloud seeding might induce cooling more evenly distributed over the globe, and hence exert much weaker regional forcing on the climate system. This hypothesis is tested with the Community Earth System Model, version 2 (CESM2). Our simulations with CESM2 reveal that this new strategy indeed alleviates the highly undesirable outcomes previously found.</p> <p>The CESM2 SSP2-4.5 ensemble simulations can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.26024/j23t-pc83.</p>

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

https://gdex.ucar.edu/datasets/d314006/

protocol: https

name: Dataset Description

description: Related Link

function: information

https://gdex.ucar.edu/datasets/d314006/dataaccess/

protocol: https

name: Data Access

description: Related Link

function: download

Unique resource identifier

code

codeSpace

Dataset language

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

climatologyMeteorologyAtmosphere

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

dataset

originating controlled vocabulary

title

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2021-03-30

Keyword set

keyword value

CESM > NCAR Community Earth System Model

originating controlled vocabulary

title

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2025-10-03

Keyword set

keyword value

EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > CLOUDS > CLOUD DYNAMICS

originating controlled vocabulary

title

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2025-10-03

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

-180.0

East bounding longitude

180.0

North bounding latitude

90.0

South bounding latitude

-90.0

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

2015-01-01T0000+00

End position

2070-01-01T0000+00

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2024-02-13

Frequency of update

notPlanned

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

organisation name

email address

datahelp@ucar.edu

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

organisation name

NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange

email address

datahelp@ucar.edu

web address

https://gdex.ucar.edu

name: NSF NCAR Geoscience Data Exchange

description: The Geoscience Data Exchange (GDEX), managed by the Computational and Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) at NSF NCAR, contains a large collection of meteorological, atmospheric composition, and oceanographic observations, and operational and reanalysis model outputs, integrated with NSF NCAR High Performance Compute services to support atmospheric and geosciences research.

function: download

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2025-10-09T01:18:26Z

Metadata language