Slashdot Mirror
Scientists Consider 'Cloud Brightening' To Preserve Australia's Great Barrier Reef (technologyreview.com)
An anonymous reader quotes MIT Technology Review:
A group of Australian marine scientists believe that altering clouds might offer one of the best hopes for saving the Great Barrier Reef. For the last six months, researchers at the Sydney Institute of Marine Science and the University of Sydney School of Geosciences have been meeting regularly to explore the possibility of making low-lying clouds off the northeastern coast of Australia more reflective in order to cool the waters surrounding the world's biggest coral reef system...
Last year, as El Nino events cranked up ocean temperatures, at least 20% of the reef died and more than 90% of it was damaged. The Australian researchers took a hard look at a number of potential ways to preserve the reefs. But at this point, making clouds more reflective looks like the most feasible way to protect an ecosystem that stretches across more than 130,000 square miles, says Daniel Harrison, a postdoctoral research associate with the Ocean Technology Group at the University of Sydney. Cloud brightening is the only thing we've identified that's scalable, sensible, and relatively environmentally benign," he says... Next month, he plans to start computer climate modeling to explore whether cloud brightening could make a big enough temperature difference to help.
They're collaborating with Silicon Valley's Marine Cloud Brightening Project, which has spent the last seven years "developing a nozzle that they believe can spray salt particles of just the right size and quantity to alter the clouds. They're attempting to raise several million dollars to build full-scale sprayers." The article describes them as "one of several research groups that have started to explore whether cloud brightening, generally discussed as a potential tool to alter the climate as a whole, could be applied in more targeted ways."
Last year, as El Nino events cranked up ocean temperatures, at least 20% of the reef died and more than 90% of it was damaged. The Australian researchers took a hard look at a number of potential ways to preserve the reefs. But at this point, making clouds more reflective looks like the most feasible way to protect an ecosystem that stretches across more than 130,000 square miles, says Daniel Harrison, a postdoctoral research associate with the Ocean Technology Group at the University of Sydney. Cloud brightening is the only thing we've identified that's scalable, sensible, and relatively environmentally benign," he says... Next month, he plans to start computer climate modeling to explore whether cloud brightening could make a big enough temperature difference to help.
They're collaborating with Silicon Valley's Marine Cloud Brightening Project, which has spent the last seven years "developing a nozzle that they believe can spray salt particles of just the right size and quantity to alter the clouds. They're attempting to raise several million dollars to build full-scale sprayers." The article describes them as "one of several research groups that have started to explore whether cloud brightening, generally discussed as a potential tool to alter the climate as a whole, could be applied in more targeted ways."
So what happens if this intervention accidentally goes wrong and utterly destroys the entire reef? Wouldn't it be something if those who claim to be helping the reef end up killing it?
Perhaps: Well the ocean temperature dropped enough, but turns out the local increase in salinity due to the cloud whitening machine spraying salt in to the air has killed off the entire Great Barrier Reef. Oops.
We have a long list of hilariously bad attempts at introducing things for the ‘better’ in Australia, The Cane Toad, Gamba Grass and Mimosa Pigra just name a few biological examples. I hope this effort doesn’t get added to our list of failures!
This reef needs to either adapt or die.
This is just a waste of money. Trump would never allow such frivolous spending.
Heh, the reef is worth about US$4.5 Billion a year in tourist income to Australia, not to mention it's value as a restocking nursery for surrounding commercial fisheries. Even the extreme right-wing climate change deniers might see some value in that.
The extreme right-wing climate change deniers probably think Australia is some kind Liberal conspiracy and doesn't exist anyway. Let's just wait until the geography is settled on that one.
On the one hand we complain about man interfering with natural processes and bemoan climate change caused by our greed and shortsightedness... on the other we propose deliberately altering the natural processes in order to cause climate change because we know better?
And if it goes horribly wrong due to our shortsightedness and arrogance? I know several people who truly in the depths of their hearts believe that they know better, are brilliant, and can do no wrong. A little self doubt can do the world a lot of good.
At the end of an El Nino the warm pool of water drifts across the Pacific just below the equator. El Nino usually breaks down during the southern hemisphere summer.
There are times when the warmer surface water, ex El-Nino arrives at the back half of the Australian summer. The reef itself slows water movement from the north/south directions but it is fairly open to surface waters arriving from the east. This allows the warmer El Nino to start pooling inside the outer barrier.
If the timing is right, this water is further heated and can trigger conditions where many coral species will "bleach". They eject their symbiotic algae. This does not kill the polyps. Usually the water cools enough so that the algae re-colonises and all continues as it was. Surface water temperature above 30 deg C is not uncommon in this area during summer in any normal year.
Cooling usually happens through tidal flow and storm (including tropical revolving storms) activity. The end of December, start of January, brings spring tides that also effectively mix the water. The tides a month later are also effective. The main cooling effect comes from the south east trade winds that cool that surface waters and bring them over the reef. They also have a strong influence in reversing the East Australia Current. In El Nino conditions the trade winds are greatly reduced exacerbating the conditions.
Making shinier clouds looks like complete and utter hokum. More chance of a benefit arising from having Trump building a wall across the equatorial pacific and having Hawaii pay for it.
Yes, you're wrong. The strong El Niño amplified sea surface temperatures for the Reef.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Oh, so that carrier group really was near North Korea after all!
sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});