Solar radiation management (SRM) projects are a largely theoretical type of geoengineering which seek to reflect sunlight and thus reduce global warming. Proposed examples include the creation of stratospheric sulfur aerosols. They would not reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, and thus do not address problems such as ocean acidification caused by these gases. Their principal advantages as an approach to geoengineering is the speed with which they can be deployed and become fully active, as well as their low financial cost. By comparison, other geoengineering techniques based on greenhouse gas remediation, such as ocean iron fertilization, need to sequester the anthropogenic carbon excess before they can arrest global warming. Solar radiation management projects can therefore be used as a geoengineering 'quick fix' while levels of greenhouse gases can be brought under control by greenhouse gas remediation techniques.
A study by Lenton and Vaughan suggest that marine cloud brightening and stratospheric sulfur aerosols are each capable of reversing the warming effect of a doubling of the level of CO2 in the atmosphere (when compared to pre-industrial levels).
Read more about Solar Radiation Management: Background, Limitations, Atmospheric Projects, Space Projects, Public Attitudes, See Also
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