Is Turning Down the Sun a Good Proxy for Stratospheric Sulfate Geoengineering?
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Abstract
Deliberately blocking out a small portion of the incoming solar radiation would cool the climate. One such approach would be injecting SO 2 into the stratosphere, which would produce sulfate aerosols that would remain in the atmosphere for 1–3 years, reflecting part of the incoming shortwave radiation. The cooling produced by the aerosols can offset the warming produced by increased greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations, but it would also affect the climate differently, leading to residual differences compared to a climate not affected by either. Many climate model simulations of geoengineering have used a uniform reduction of the incoming solar radiation as a proxy for stratospheric aerosols, both because many models are not designed to adequately capture relevant stratospheric aerosol processes, and because a solar reduction has often been assumed to capture the most important differences between how stratospheric aerosols and GHG would affect the climate. Here we show that dimming the sun does not produce the same surface climate effects as simulating aerosols in the stratosphere. By more closely matching the spatial pattern of solar reduction to that of the aerosols, some improvements in this idealized representation are possible, with further improvements if the stratospheric heating produced by the aerosols is included. This is relevant both for our understanding of the physical mechanisms driving the changes observed in stratospheric‐sulfate geoengineering simulations, and in terms of the relevance of impact assessments that use a uniform solar dimming.
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Solar dimming approaches would not account for the spectrally dependent scattering and absorption properties of stratospheric aerosols, nor adequately capture associated chemical and dynamical feedbacks, particularly those influencing ozone and stratosphere-troposphere exchange.
“While solar dimming provides a simplified means of approximating the cooling effects of geoengineering, such approaches would not account for the spectrally dependent scattering and absorption properties of stratospheric aerosols, nor would it adequately capture the associated chemical and dynamical feedbacks, particularly those influencing ozone and STE (Visioni et al., 2021; Bednarz et al., 2022”
From Air quality impacts of stratospheric aerosol injections are likely small and mainly driven by changes in climate, not aerosol settling (2026) · cites this paper as Visioni et al., 2021
Cites
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Self-citationHalving warming with idealized solar geoengineering moderates key climate hazards
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Self-citationChanging transport processes in the stratosphere by radiative heating of sulfate aerosols
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Self-citationWhat goes up must come down: impacts of deposition in a sulfate geoengineering scenario
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Lee, W. R., MacMartin, D. G., Visioni, D., & Kravitz, B. (2021) · Geophysical Research Letters · doi:10.1029/2021gl092696 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
Self-citationVisioni, D., Bednarz, E. M., MacMartin, D. G., Kravitz, B., & Goddard, P. B. (2023) · Earth's Future · doi:10.1029/2023ef003851 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Self-citationQuantifying the Efficiency of Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering at Different Altitudes
Lee, W. R., Visioni, D., Bednarz, E. M., MacMartin, D. G., Kravitz, B., & Tilmes, S. (2023) · Geophysical Research Letters · doi:10.1029/2023gl104417 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
Self-citationAn approach to sulfate geoengineering with surface emissions of carbonyl sulfide
Quaglia, I., Visioni, D., Pitari, G., & Kravitz, B. (2022) · Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics · doi:10.5194/acp-22-5757-2022 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Self-citationImpact of solar geoengineering on wildfires in the 21st century in CESM2/WACCM6
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Self-citationHack, M., McNeill, V. F., Steingart, D., & Wagner, G. (2025) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-025-20447-2 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
“…injection, separated into tropical/equatorial 3–6,17–19,21,22,24,] 26,30–33,50–163 , polar 21,24,28,55–57,] 128,134–137,147,150,152,] 164,165 , and multi-latitude 6,11,16,17,21,] 22,25,28–30,32,]61,] 86–89,104,107,] 109,113,119,120,122,127,] 128,135–137,145,] 147–150,152,157,163,165–222 strategies.”
Wang, C., Visioni, D., Chua, G., & Bednarz, E. M. (2026) · Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics · doi:10.5194/acp-26-1339-2026 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Visioni, D., MacMartin, D. G., & Kravitz, B.
- Affiliations
- Cornell University (US)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (US)
- Corresponding author
- Visioni, Daniele
- Venue
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 2021-03
- Volume
- 126
- Issue
- 5
- ISSN
- 0148-0227 (ISSN-L)
- 2169-897X
- 2169-8996
- OpenAlex
- W3092918719
- Cited by
- 99
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 24
- FWCI
- 8.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (CBET‐1818759, CBET‐1931641)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate Change and Geoengineering
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Atmospheric aerosols and clouds
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate variability and models
- Keywords
- solar geoengineering, stratospheric sulfate aerosols, solar dimming, sulfur dioxide insertion, shortwave radiation, stratospheric heating, greenhouse gas forcing, impact assessment
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