As humans, we have many options for blocking out the sun, such as sunglasses, sunscreen, or simply sitting in the shade. The planet doesn’t have that, but it’s getting warmer. Now researchers are looking into whether they can develop a planet-wide shielding mechanism to combat global warming. And they’re looking at clouds.
It’s no coincidence that houses are white outside: They reflect sunlight. Researchers think that if they make clouds whiter, the sunlight will be reflected back to some extent and the planet will stay cooler. The idea is that this will apply to clouds over the ocean, The New York Times writes.
Extra sea salt particles
Researchers from the University of Washington are now running experiments in the San Francisco area to see if their theory can work in practice. It may sound strange to make clouds paler, but of course it works. Clouds naturally reflect sunlight back into space, and the researchers want to boost that. Their work doesn’t involve paint, but simply injecting sea salt particles into low-hanging clouds. The hope is that this way, less sunlight will penetrate the clouds and the heat will stay away a little longer.
A special spray device that shoots sea salt particles into the air has been created on a flight deck ship called the Hornet. It's not just the quantity of particles that matters, but their size in particular. Smaller particles can reflect better.
fear of consequences
It's a controversial study: there's also talk in the scientific world that it could lead to different climate patterns on a larger scale and perhaps even different ocean circulation. So researchers should also carefully consider the harmful effects of their research.
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