Cirrus cloud thinning
proposed form of climate engineering
Cirrus cloud thinning (CCT) is a proposed method of climate engineering. Cirrus clouds are high cold ice that, like other clouds, both reflect sunlight and absorb warming infrared radiation. However, they differ from other types of clouds in that, on average, infrared absorption outweighs sunlight reflection, resulting in a net warming effect on the climate. Therefore, thinning or removing these clouds would reduce their heat trapping capacity, resulting in a cooling effect on Earth's climate. This could be a potential tool to reduce global warming. Cirrus cloud thinning is an alternative category of climate engineering, in addition to solar radiation management.
In 2021 the IPCC described CCT as a proposal "to reduce the amount of cirrus clouds by injecting ice nucleating substances in the upper troposphere." However it reported low confidence in the cooling effect of CCT, due to limited understanding of cirrus microphysics, its interaction with aerosols, and the complexity of seeding strategy. CCT may also increase global precipitation.
Basic principles
Typical cirrus clouds may be susceptible to modification to reduce their lifetime and optical thickness, and hence their net positive radiative forcing (in contrast to the typical low, warm liquid clouds). Material to seed such modification could be delivered via drones or by aircraft.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cirrus cloud thinning” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.