Impacts of hemispheric solar geoengineering on tropical cyclone frequency

Solar geoengineering refers to a range of proposed methods for counteracting global warming by artificially reducing sunlight at Earth’s surface. The most widely known solar geoengineering proposal is stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), which has impacts analogous to those from volcanic eruptions. Observations following major volcanic eruptions indicate that aerosol enhancements confined to a single hemisphere effectively modulate North Atlantic tropical cyclone (TC) activity in the following years. Here we investigate the effects of both single-hemisphere and global SAI scenarios on North Atlantic TC activity using the HadGEM2-ES general circulation model and various TC identification methods. We show that a robust result from all of the methods is that SAI applied to the southern hemisphere would enhance TC frequency relative to a global SAI application, and vice versa for SAI in the northern hemisphere. Our results reemphasise concerns regarding regional geoengineering and should motivate policymakers to regulate large-scale unilateral geoengineering deployments.

Solar geoengineering has been proposed as a means of mitigating the warming effects of climate change, yet the consequences of such action remain uncertain. Here, using a general circulation model, the authors evaluate the effect of stratospheric aerosol injection on tropical cyclone activity.

Climatic control of the high-latitude vegetation greening trend and Pinatubo effect

A biogeochemical model of vegetation using observed climate data predicts the high northern latitude greening trend over the past two decades observed by satellites and a marked setback in this trend after the Mount Pinatubo volcano eruption in 1991. The observed trend toward earlier spring budburst and increased maximum leaf area is produced by the model as a consequence of biogeochemical vegetation responses mainly to changes in temperature. The post-Pinatubo decline in vegetation in 1992-1993 is apparent as the effect of temporary cooling caused by the eruption. High-latitude CO(2) uptake during these years is predicted as a consequence of the differential response of heterotrophic respiration and net primary production.