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Due to elevated atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, the net difference between the amount of sunlight absorbed by the Earth and the amount of energy radiated back to space has risen from 1.7 W/m 2 in 1980, to 3.1 W/m 2 in 2019. Overview Means of operation Īveraged over the year and location, the Earth's atmosphere receives 340 W/m 2 of solar irradiance from the sun. 4.1 Incomplete solution to elevated carbon dioxide concentrations.2 Evidence of effectiveness and impacts.Governing solar geoengineering is challenging for multiple reasons. Solar geoengineering's excessive, poorly distributed, or sudden and sustained termination would pose serious environmental risks. Solar geoengineering would not directly reduce carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere, and thus does not address ocean acidification. Solar geoengineering could serve as a response if climate change impacts are greater than expected or as a temporary, complementary measure while atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are lowered through emissions reductions and carbon dioxide removal. Stratospheric aerosol injection, the most widely studied method, appears technically feasible and inexpensive in terms of direct financial costs. Solar geoengineering's principal advantages are the speed with which it could be deployed and become active and the reversibility of its direct climatic effects. Climate models consistently indicate that it is capable of returning global, regional, and local temperatures and precipitation closer to pre-industrial levels.
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Solar geoengineering appears able to prevent some or much of climate change. Although most techniques would have global effects, localized protective or restorative methods have also been proposed to protect natural heat reflectors including sea ice, snow, and glaciers. Most methods would increase the planetary albedo (reflectivity), for example with stratospheric aerosol injection. Solar geoengineering, or solar radiation modification (SRM) is a proposed type of climate engineering in which sunlight (solar radiation) would be reflected back to space to limit or reverse human-caused climate change. Proposed SPICE solar geoengineering project using a tethered balloon to inject sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere.