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Cloud brightening to cool seas can protect coral reefs
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/w-cbt071013.php[font face=Serif]Public release date: 10-Jul-2013
Contact: Ben Norman
Sciencenewsroom@wiley.com
44-012-437-70375
Wiley
[font size=5]Cloud brightening to cool seas can protect coral reefs[/font]
[font size=4]Targeted cooling could offer a 50-year 'breathing space' for coral protection[/font]
[font size=3]The seeding of marine clouds to cool sea surface temperatures could protect threatened coral reefs from being bleached by warming oceans. Research, published in Atmospheric Science Letters, proposes that a targeted version of the geo-engineering technique could give coral a fifty year 'breathing space' to recover from acidification and warming.
"Coral bleaching over the last few decades has been caused by rising sea temperatures and ocean acidification," said Dr Alan Gadian, from Leeds University. "Our research focuses on how Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) could quickly lower sea temperatures in targeted areas."
There is a strong association between warmer-than-normal sea conditions and cases of coral bleaching. Bleaching is most likely to occur when a 1˚C temperature rise over a prolonged period, typically a 12-week period.
To brighten clouds unmanned vehicles are used to spray tiny seawater droplets, which rise into the cloud, thereby increasing their reflectivity and duration. In this way, more sunlight is bounced back into space, resulting in a cooling sea surface temperature.
…[/font][/font]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/asl2.442Contact: Ben Norman
Sciencenewsroom@wiley.com
44-012-437-70375
Wiley
[font size=5]Cloud brightening to cool seas can protect coral reefs[/font]
[font size=4]Targeted cooling could offer a 50-year 'breathing space' for coral protection[/font]
[font size=3]The seeding of marine clouds to cool sea surface temperatures could protect threatened coral reefs from being bleached by warming oceans. Research, published in Atmospheric Science Letters, proposes that a targeted version of the geo-engineering technique could give coral a fifty year 'breathing space' to recover from acidification and warming.
"Coral bleaching over the last few decades has been caused by rising sea temperatures and ocean acidification," said Dr Alan Gadian, from Leeds University. "Our research focuses on how Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) could quickly lower sea temperatures in targeted areas."
There is a strong association between warmer-than-normal sea conditions and cases of coral bleaching. Bleaching is most likely to occur when a 1˚C temperature rise over a prolonged period, typically a 12-week period.
To brighten clouds unmanned vehicles are used to spray tiny seawater droplets, which rise into the cloud, thereby increasing their reflectivity and duration. In this way, more sunlight is bounced back into space, resulting in a cooling sea surface temperature.
…[/font][/font]
