Can trends in flying, shipping and agriculture taken
with a weaker solar cycle mean we
don’t really need Geo-engineering ? By
Dr Chris Barnes Bangor Scientific and Educational Consultants June 2013.
Dr Barnes Homepage http://www.drchrisbarnes.co.uk
E-mail
doctor.barnes@yahoo.co.uk
Abstract
A very
brief review of geo-engineering by ocean iron seeding and stratospheric solar
radiation management is made. The
unforeseen dangers of ocean iron seeding may easily outweigh those of sulphate
injection SRM. Drivers for climatic
change are very briefly reviewed.
Aerosols are discussed, particularly in the light of natural and
anthropogenic sources and there stronger than previously thought ability as
negative climate forcers. Sulphate
aerosol in particular appears to be on the increase, contrary to the stated
claims of some. Coincidental Sulphate
injection by the sub -sonic air fleet, as a result of agriculture and ship
tracks, coupled with a weaker than expected present solar cycle and a predicted
even weaker next solar cycle is thought sufficient to exclude the need for
geo-engineering at present. A small
continued degree of warming may be economically and agriculturally more
desirable than a Maunder minimum style cooling. Present figures seem to
indicate that warming has halted. Erring
on the side of caution the air fleet should perhaps not for the present switch
to very low sulphur fuel. In addition to
increasing aerosols, contrail avoidance
technologies may already be impacting positively in terms of stabilising
climate. Our ordinary air fleet used
appropriately may be sufficient to perform all the world's climate and/or
weather engineering until at least the year 2040.
Introduction
For the past few decades there have been a number of proponents of geo-engineering and its attendant methods of climate mitigation of supposed global warming (1-3). The most shocking example is an illegal experiment in ocean iron seeding carbon sequestration which has already taken place (4). This action was illegal according to a previous definition by Reyfuse et al 2008 (5). There has also been much talk about and indeed many proposals for causing cooling by stratospheric sulphate injection see Rasch et al (6). Government committees have also been set up (7). Although the effectiveness of bringing this about by re-routing aircraft has recently been challenged by Laakso et al 2012 (8).
The purpose of this present work is to show that taken together with other forms of natural and anthropogenic aerosol injection and reduced solar radiation there is presently sufficient coincidental
stratospheric sulphate injection as a result of the subsonic aviation fleet operating at normal heights below the tropo-pause to offset current warming without the need to geo-engineer. This appears to be borne out by other studies of the present author (9).
Particularly as some recent findings tend to suggest that the last few decade's trend in warming has at worst slowed (10) or ceased (11) or at best even reversed (12).
Warming or cooling there are only four real known parent
drivers for change. These are anthropogenic change, tectonic change
(volcanism and earth quakes) and solar change (luminosity and emissions) and
GCR (Galactic Cosmic Ray Events).
In order to reconcile this apparent cessation of warming one has to reach the conclusion that either there are either unknown strongly negative climate forcing factors or that known negative forcing factors have been significantly underestimated or that solar irradiation and GCR plays a very important part.
Saved
by the aerosols
Fairly recently, Bellouin et al (2005)(13) have provided the best measurement to date of aerosol direct radiative forcing of -1.9 +/- 0.3 W/m^-2 . In 1997, Hansen et al (14) concluded that there was potentially a missing climate forcing of up to -1 W/m^-2 due to indirect aerosol effects on clouds. The combined effect of these two factors alone is sufficient to offset positive forcing as defined by the IPCC (15) previously ascribed to CO2 but suggested by others to be partially (40% ) (16) or exclusively or predominantly due to aircraft contrails (9).
There is a large body of evidence to suggest that atmospheric aerosols both sulphate and mineral and stratospheric particles, both capable of negative climate forcing (17-29 ), are on the increase (30,31) and make a highly statistically significant difference to cloud droplet number concentrations(32). Indeed nearly all today's clouds are shaped by the effects of human perturbation (33). Further there is a body of evidence to suggest that subsonic aircraft operating at normal cruise altitudes below the tropo-pause inject sulphate aerosol up to 3 km into the stratosphere (34-37) . Further this injection increases non-linearly with fuel sulphur content (38-42). It would thus seem bizarre then that Belloiun et al (2005) claims that aerosols are in decline (43). On the other hand Susan Soloman (2012)(44) working at NOAA, the very same organisation which employs one of Belloiun's co-workers claimed that aerosols were on the increase and that recent measurements demonstrate this but that the “background” stratospheric aerosol layer is persistently variable rather than constant, even in the absence of major volcanic eruptions. Several independent data sets also show that stratospheric aerosols have increased in abundance since 2000 (45,46 ). Soloman further states that near-global satellite aerosol data imply a negative radiative forcing due to stratospheric aerosol changes over this period of about –0.1 watt per square meter, reducing the recent global warming that would otherwise have occurred. Observations from earlier periods are limited but suggest an additional negative radiative forcing of about –0.1 watt per square meter from 1960 to 1990. Further climate model projections neglecting these changes would continue to overestimate the radiative forcing and global warming in coming decades if these aerosols remain present at current values or increase.
Do
aerosols have a downside?
It is thought that aerosols might impact on the world's hydrological cycles (47). Hydrological changes have been mentioned elsewhere in connection with persistent aircraft contrails both by the present author (48) and others (49) and here may lay the association.
Other
aerosol mechanisms
Aerosols also change the global atmospheric electric current (50,51) and hence the two way propagation of acoustic gravity waves (52-55). The present author has commented on these effects elsewhere (48).
Natural
cycles
Our understanding of longer term (tens of years plus) planetary/weather cycles is fairly limited (56,57). There is however more than just anecdotal evidence for their existence. Britain has just experienced its coldest Winter and Spring period since 1947. Apparently from the available records the summer of 1947 was the fifth hottest ever on record (58,59) and yet normal seasonal temperatures were not experienced until the last week in May and first week in June. 1963 had a winter followed by an early summer period with similar trends (58-60). Here in Britain in 2013 we are now experiencing a similar recovery of temperature. One cannot perhaps but help ponder on the strength of natural cycles outweighing anthropogenic influence.
Conclusions
and further work
Given our present love of flying and international travel and overseas holidays aerosols inadvertently injected from passenger aircraft will, presumably, continue to increase. All aerosols are predicted to grow in numbers until at least 2040 , see Wolf and Hidy 1997 (61).
Our agricultural practices are also estimated to provide between 30-50 % of the dust required for aerosol nucleation above the Atlantic ocean, Abbatt et al (62). Since progressively more land is being turned over to agriculture, wind lofted particles here also provide another increasing source of aerosol, see Miller and Tigen (63). Natural salt spray over the oceans provides most natural sulphate aerosol , see Jacobson 2001 (64) but this is probably being modified as shipping increases, see Hooper and James (65) and ship tracks (66) will require quantification and investigation. Space flight and decaying space junk also significantly adds to particulate matter in the stratosphere (67).
The last two solar cycles have been weaker than for some time (68,69) and the next one is predicted to be minuscule (70). During the Maunder minimum average global temperatures fell particularly in the Northern Hemisphere where the fall was probably between 1 and 2 Celsius (71). Such a fall in global temperatures would impact more severely on modern agriculture than a .5 degree rise (72).
It is imperative that climate scientists take all the present work and its references into account in and in proper context before deciding if geo- engineering climate mitigation will ever be required.
Based on the above premise that aerosols appear to have a far stronger negative forcing effect on climate than previously thought and spreading contrails and contrail cirrus a far stronger positive forcing effect (see O Boucher - Nature Climate Change, 2011 - nature.com) and despite the claims of some, particularly sulphate aerosol appears to be continuing to increase, coupled with the prediction that the next solar cycle could be extremely weak, it is the personal and present view of the present author that geo-engineering should not presently be used. On the plus side, if stratospheric experiments were tested, aerosol residency is measured in days or months (73) rather than several years as with CO2 in the stratosphere (74) or some five hundred years in the atmosphere as a whole before equilibration with the sea (75), see Craig 1957, so any experimentation (should it ever be granted) would if it went wrong only produce transient changes of similar duration. A great fear of its use is inducing either runaway cooling or excessive dimming which could severely sicken the world's agriculture and population. A greater fear is with the use of ocean iron seeding for in addition to phytoplankton being a known CO2 sink, they are also thought to control marine aerosols (76,77), a continued unchecked or increasing production of which could eventually induce either runaway cooling or excessive dimming which could severely sicken the world's agriculture and population.
Whereas at least for the moment the available climate figures seem to tell us that global warming has halted. The author believes it would be premature for the air fleet to switch to ultra low sulphur fuel as this could tip the balance back to warming by reducing sulphate aerosol loading of the UTLS and encouraging spreading contrails. Coincidentally, it would seem very recently indeed that the UK Met Office has considerably revised down its estimate for the warming produced by line shaped contrails, see Forster et al 2010 (78). Contrail avoidance technologies may help cut warming in future, see Noppel and Singh 2007 (79). Such technologies are now being developed and employed even for use in the presence of cross winds at various places in the world, see Sridhar et al 2011 (80). It is somewhat speculative but given the tremendous
impact of air traffic on our climate one wonders if contrail avoidance alone has helped with the recent cooling trends? Certainly at the author's residence the number of days in a year where persistent spreading contrails are observed does seem to have fallen significantly since its peak in about 2005.
What seems certain to the present author is that scientifically applied use of normal air fleet aircraft technology alone viz a viz engine design, fuel components, flight path and routing ought to be sufficient to control (geo-engineer) climate until at least 2040 based on present predictions. As the present author has stated elsewhere it is known that there are also inadvertent local weather changes associated with contrails in particular and as science better also comes to understand these regular contrail weather engineering distinct from or in association with separate techniques such as seeding might become the norm.
Provided of course no materials are employed which injure populations below.
References
1. D.W. Kieth, University of Calgary,http://www.ethree.com/downloads/Climate%20Change%20Readings/Low%20Carbon%20Technology%20and%20Mitigation%20Costs/Keith%20-%20Engineering%20the%20Planet.pdf
2. Irvine et al ,2009,http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/stl/sciprg/2009/00000092/00000002/art00003
3. Victor et alhttp://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/20699494?uid=3738032&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21102375170287
4. http://www.livescience.com/24025-illegal-iron-dumping-phytoplankton-bloom.html
5. Rayfuse et al 2008 http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mnp/estu/2008/00000023/00000002/art00005
6. Rasch et al. http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/366/1882/4007.short
8. Laakso et al 2012 http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/7/3/034021
9. Barnes 2012 http://www.drchrisbarnes.co.uk/CLI.htm
13. Bellouin, Boucher et al http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7071/abs/nature04348.html
14. Hansen et al 1997 http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/352/1350/231.short
15. http://www.grida.no/publications/other/ipcc_tar/?src=/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/015.htm
16. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/45746
17. Kiehl and Briegleb 1993 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/260/5106/311.short
19. Sokolin and Toon 1996 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v381/n6584/abs/381681a0.html
20. http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0442(2002)015%3C0333%3ASSAARF%3E2.0.CO%3B2
23. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2001JD001066/abstract
24. http://www.pnas.org/content/96/7/3372.short
26. Penner et al 1992 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/256/5062/1432.short
27. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1034/j.1600-0870.1991.00013.x/abstract
29. http://sp.lyellcollection.org/content/213/1/329.short
30. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v404/n6773/abs/404066a0.html
31. http://repository.ju.edu.jo/Lists/English_Repository/Attachments/28542/ber10-323.pdf
33. Anreaee, Science 2007, http://media.cigionline.org/geoeng/2007%20-%20Andreae%20-%20Aerosols%20Before%20Pollution.pdf
35. Hermann et al (2003) http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2001JD001077/abstract
40. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/97GL00107/abstract
43. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7071/abs/nature04348.html
44. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6044/866.short
46.
Z
Lu, DG Streets, Q Zhang, S Wang… - Atmospheric …, 2010 - atmos-chem-phys.net
47.
V
Ramanathan, PJ Crutzen, JT Kiehl, D Rosenfeld - science, 2001 - sciencemag.org
48.
Barnes http://www.drchrisbarnes.co.uk/atmospheric.htm
49.
U
Lohmann, J Feichter -
Atmos. Chem. Phys, 2005 - atmos-chem-phys.net
50.
http://www.drchrisbarnes.co.uk/Global.htm
51.
BA Tinsley, JT Hoeksema, DN Baker - Journal of geophysical research, 1994
– agu.org
52.
S
Dong, B Lipkens, TM Cameron - Journal of aerosol science, 2006 - Elsevier
53.
VM
Sorokin, VM Chmyrev, AK Yaschenko
- Journal of Atmospheric and …, 2001 - Elsevier
54.
SD
Eckermann, I Hirota… -
Quarterly Journal of the …, 1995 - Wiley Online Library
55.
S Pulinets - Terrestrial Atmospheric and Oceanic
Sciences, 2004 - 210.77.94.226
56.
WJ
Burroughs - Weather, 1994 - Wiley
Online Library
57.
HH Lamb - Quarterly Journal of
the Royal Meteorological …, 1950 - Wiley Online Library
58.
JA
Kington - Weather, 1976 - Wiley Online Library
59.
J
Luterbacher, D Dietrich, E Xoplaki,
M Grosjean… - Science, 2004 - sciencemag.org
60.
JPD
Abbatt, S Benz, DJ Cziczo,
Z Kanji, U Lohmann… - Science, 2006 - sciencemag.org
61.
ME
Wolf, GM Hidy - Journal of Geophysical Research: …,
1997 - Wiley Online Library
62.
JPD
Abbatt, S Benz, DJ Cziczo,
Z Kanji, U Lohmann… - Science, 2006 - sciencemag.org
63.
RL
Miller, I Tegen - Journal of climate, 1998 -
journals.ametsoc.org
64.
MZ
Jacobson - Journal of Geophysical Research, 2001 - agu.org
65.
Hooper and James http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/1520-0469%282000%29057%3C2649%3ALOOSSP%3E2.0.CO%3B2
66. PA Durkee, KJ Noone, RT Bluth - Journal of the atmospheric …, 2000 - journals.ametsoc.org
67. JL Warren, ME Zolensky - AIP Conference Proceedings, 1994 - link.aip.org
68.
D
Archibald - International Conference on Climate Change, New …, 2008 -
westinstenv.org
69.
FB
McDonald, WR Webber… - Geophysical Research …, 2010 - Wiley Online Library
71.
http://academic.evergreen.edu/z/zita/articles/solar/MaunderMin04Shindell.pd
72.
My facts are better than your facts:
spreading good news about global warming
N Oreskes - This page intentionally left blank, 2010 - books.google.com
73.
http://www.cprm.gov.br/pgagem/Manuscripts/baskaranm.htm
74.
KA
Boering, SC Wofsy, BC Daube, HR Schneider… - Science, 1996 - sciencemag.org
75. Craig 1957 H Craig - Tellus, 1957 - Wiley Online Library
76. SE Schwartz - Nature, 1988 - ecd.bnl.gov
77.
GP Ayers, JP Ivey, RW Gillett - 1991 -
nature.com
78.
PM
Forster, JM Haywood, A Jones, O Boucher - Geophysical Research …, 2010 -
agu.org
79.
F
Noppel, R Singh - Journal of Aircraft, 2007 -
arc.aiaa.org
80.
B
Sridhar, H Ng, N Chen - Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, 2011 -
arc.aiaa.org