Introducing stratospheric aerosols into the atmosphere was first suggested by Russian

climatologist Mikhail Ivanovich Budyko in 1974. Aerosols naturally increase the planet’s albedo by
reflecting sunlight which ultimately cools the Earth’s surface. Stratospheric aerosols have a residence
time of a few years in the stratosphere, compared to a very short time in the troposphere. The
aerosols would have to be delivered to the stratosphere to achieve a significant cooling result over
the entire global surface. Sulphate aerosols also act as cloud condensation nuclei. Cloud droplets
form on the surface of aerosols, and this influences the size of cloud droplets in the formation of
clouds. When large amounts of aerosols are available, the smaller the cloud droplets will be. Clouds
with small sized cloud droplets are more effective at reflecting incoming solar radiation, and as a
result will have an additional cooling affect (Slanina).

Aerosols form from the precursor gases dimethyl sulfide (DMS), sulfur dioxide (SO 2), hydrogen
sulphide (H2S), and carbonyl sulphide (OCS). These gases are involved in oxidation reactions and the
end product is usually the sulphate anion SO2-4. When am ammonia is abundant the aerosols also form
((NH4)SO4) ammonium sulphate and ((NH4)HSO4) bisulphate. Tropospheric aerosols are subject to high
winds and quick sedimentation of particles. Larger aerosols are more susceptible to settling out and
are and gradually rained out. Stratospheric aerosols are controlled by the concentrations of the
sulphur species. Aerosols are most effective when they are very small. The size of the aerosol particle
determines what radiation in the solar spectrum will be reflected. A particle can scatter light in all
directions, or if the wavelength of the light and the particle size are nearly equal some of the light will
scatter the light back from the direction it came in. Aerosols between 0.1 and 2 micrometers in
diameter will effectively scatter incoming short wave solar radiation back into space. Particles smaller
or larger than this do not have a very effective reflectivity (Slanina).

There are also a great number of risks and negative impacts to injected aerosols into the
stratosphere. Issues such as drought, acidification of the oceans, ozone depletion, greater air pollution,
rapid warming, ethical, and moral consequences need to be considered prior to implementation.

One of the riskiest aspects of geoengineering stratospheric aerosols is the potential for drought
in Africa and Asia. The nature of aerosols is to reflect solar radiation away from Earth’s surface, but as a
result they act to repress precipitation. Since aerosols decrease the amount of sunlight that reaches the
Earth’s surface, less heat is available for heating the air above the surface to evaporate water. As
mentioned earlier, aerosols also act as cloud condensation nuclei. Clouds with a great number of CCN
aerosols are slow to convert cloud droplets to actual raindrops, which again suppresses precipitation.
Researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research discovered that the 1991 eruption of
Mount Pinatubo resulted in less precipitation and soil moisture in regions throughout the world. In
addition, eruptions that occur in higher latitudes stifle the African and Asian monsoons. The 1783
eruption of Laki in Iceland lead to drought and famine in Africa, India, and Japan. This risk is an ethical
debate, because most of the countries that would be affected by the drought are third world countries
and may not have the resources to help their people survive in a severe drought (Kravitz).

One of the main arguments against adding aerosols to the stratosphere is that it is not an actual
solution to the growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Aerosols are introduced to only counteract greenhouse gases warming potentials. Since the amount of
incoming solar radiation is only being decreased, the other aspects of greenhouse gases are still
affecting the world. If carbon dioxide concentrations still increase the problem of acidification of the
oceans is still present. Oceans are responsible for dissolving a great deal of carbon dioxide, and if the
ocean continues to dissolve even greater concentrations, the concentration of the hydrogen will
increase. This leads to a lower pH, and huge consequences to marine life. Organisms with calcium
carbonate shells are in danger of dissolving. We could see the coral reefs disappear, and that would
affect countless marine ecosystems (Crutzen).

Stratospheric aerosols would also be responsible for ozone layer depletion. Introducing aerosols
into the stratosphere would lengthen the healing of the current Antarctic ozone hole by many decades
and increase the hole in the Arctic. Aerosols are involved in chemical reactions that increase chlorine
and bromine’s effectiveness at depleting ozone. Reactions with depleting substances like
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), methyl chloroform, or other halons,
accelerate the release of chlorine or bromine, which in turn efficiently deplete ozone ( Heckendorn).

There is also potential for rapid warming if the introduction of aerosols to the stratosphere was
abruptly stopped. Stratospheric aerosols act to balance the warming effect of CO 2 by reflecting
incoming solar radiation. However these two species have very different climate response times.
Stratospheric aerosols have a lifetime of a few years while CO 2 can be hundreds of years. If aerosol
implementation is not maintained after it is started, the unbalance of CO 2 to aerosols can cause massive
rapid warming in which the world may not be able to deal with (Robock).

In addition, the balance of cooling throughout the Earth may not be consistent. Aerosols reflect
sunlight uniformly around latitude zones. However with increasing latitude the amount of sunlight
reflected would vary because of the angle of the Earth and changing seasons. Even though aerosols
reflect sunlight uniformly in latitude zones, they have to balance the non uniform warming effect of the
greenhouse gases in the troposphere. The stratospheric injection of aerosols would have to be
engineered to balance the globally averaged heat trapped by greenhouse gases. Unbalances can give
rise to high regional temperature differences if it is not maintained (Kravitz).

One of the greatest issues that geoengineering stratospheric aerosol injection would have to
overcome is dealing with the infrastructure. Questions arise such as which countries will be responsible
for financially backing the engineering or who will decide what the optimal temperature will be. If
suddenly a war breaks out between countries involved in the project and one suddenly backs out, what
consequences will that have on continuing to inject the aerosols into the stratosphere. One of the main
constituents in this geoengineering proposal is that it is necessary for the aerosols to be continually
introduced. Any sudden decrease in the amount of aerosols can lead to rapid warming. If this strategy
is ever to be implemented an international body would have to take over the project and would need to
have plans to continue injecting the aerosols even if an international crisis occurred.
 Works Cited

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Dilemma?" Climatic Change 77.3-4 (2006). SpringerLink. Web. 10 May 2010.

<http://www.springerlink.com/content/t1vn75m458373h63/>.

Heckendorn, P., D. Weisenstein, and S. Fueglistaler. "The Impact of Geoengineering Aerosols on Stratospheric

Temperature and Ozone." 2009 Environmental Research Letter 4 045108 (2009). IOP Science. IOP

Publishing Ltd., 13 Nov. 2009. Web. 10 May 2010. <(http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/4/4/045108)>.

Kravitz, Ben, Allison Marquardt, and Alan Robock. "The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Stratospheric

Geoengineering." Geophysical Research Letters (2009). Web.

<http://climate.envsci.rutgers.edu/pdf/GRLreview2.pdf>.

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(2008): 14-18. Web. 10 May 2010. <http://www.thebulletin.org/files.064002006_0.pdf>.

Slanina, Sjaak. "Aerosols." Encyclopedia of Earth. 2 Jan. 2010. Web. 10 May 2010.

<http://www.eoearth.org/article/Aerosols>.