Side Effects of Sulfur‐Based Geoengineering Due To Absorptivity of Sulfate Aerosols
Open accessAbstract
Sulfur‐based stratospheric aerosol intervention (SAI) can cool the climate, but also heats the tropical lower stratosphere if done with injections at low latitudes. We explore the role of this heating in the climate response to SAI, by using mechanistic experiments that remove the effects of longwave absorption of sulfate aerosols above the tropopause. If longwave absorption by stratospheric aerosols is disabled, the heating of the tropical tropopause and most of the related side effects are strongly alleviated and the cooling per Tg‐S injected is 40% bigger. Such side‐effects include the poleward expansion of eddy‐driven jets, acceleration of the stratospheric residual circulation, and delay of Antarctic ozone recovery. Our results add to other recent findings on SAI side effects and demonstrate that SAI scenarios with low‐latitude injections of absorptive materials may result in atmospheric effects and regional climate changes that are comparable to those produced by the CO 2 warming signal.
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In the Southern Hemisphere, stratospheric aerosol injection is predicted to lead to an increasingly positive Southern Annular Mode.
“In the Southern Hemisphere, SAI is predicted to lead to an increasingly positive Southern Annular Mode (SAM) [51, 52].”
Cites
Paris Agreement climate proposals need a boost to keep warming well below 2 °C
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“However, ongoing efforts are not enough to limit global warming to below 2°C (Paris Agreement, Robiou & Meinshausen, 2018; Rogelj et al., 2016): this motivates a search for additional ways to mitigate some of the projected climate change risks.”
BackgroundThe Sensitivity of Polar Ozone Depletion to Proposed Geoengineering Schemes
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Self-citationStratospheric solar geoengineering without ozone loss
Keith, D. W., Weisenstein, D. K., Dykema, J. A., & Keutsch, F. N. (2016) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1615572113 · Cited by 176 · see citing works
Potential ecological impacts of climate intervention by reflecting sunlight to cool Earth
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Self-citationChanging transport processes in the stratosphere by radiative heating of sulfate aerosols
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What goes up must come down: impacts of deposition in a sulfate geoengineering scenario
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“…option to alleviate some of the side effects in the troposphere and stratosphere, including the delay of ozone recovery in the SH. Antarctic ozone loss could be additionally reduced if the SAI materials were chemically inert (e.g., calcite or limestone) (Dai et al., 2020; Keith et al., 2016).”
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Neale, P. J., Hylander, S., Banaszak, A. T., Häder, D.-P., Rose, K. C., Vione, D., Wängberg, S.-Å., Jansen, M. A. K., Busquets, R., Andersen, M. P. S., et al. (2025) · Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences · doi:10.1007/s43630-025-00687-x · Cited by 32 · see citing works
“In the Southern Hemisphere, SAI is predicted to lead to an increasingly positive Southern Annular Mode (SAM) [51, 52].”
Self-citationVattioni, S., Weber, R., Feinberg, A., Stenke, A., Dykema, J. A., Luo, B., Kelesidis, G. A., Bruun, C. A., Sukhodolov, T., Keutsch, F. N., et al. (2024) · Geoscientific Model Development · doi:10.5194/gmd-17-7767-2024 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
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
- Authors
- Wunderlin, E., Chiodo, G., Sukhodolov, T., Vattioni, S., Visioni, D., & Tilmes, S.
- Affiliations
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos (CH)
- Cornell University (US)
- NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wunderlin, Elia
- ORCID
- Venue
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 2024-02-23
- Volume
- 51
- Issue
- 4
- ISSN
- 0094-8276 (ISSN-L)
- 1944-8007
- OpenAlex
- W4392146838
- Cited by
- 29
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 9
- FWCI
- 5.12
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Geophysical Research Letters (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- ETH Zürich Research Collection
- Funders
- Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH-1719-2, 1719-2)
- Centro Svizzero di Calcolo Scientifico (s1144)
- National Supercomputing Centre Singapore
- 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 › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Atmospheric Ozone and Climate
- Keywords
- stratospheric aerosol injection, sulfate aerosols, tropical tropopause, global cooling, eddy-driven jet
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