The US government is considering the concept of placing material between the Sun and the Earth as method of reducing the amount of solar radiation.

The Congressionally-Mandated Report on Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) kas released a report on the concept, also known as solar geoengineering.

Although it is a report on the potential methods and results, it is clear that it is purely theoretical, and that there are no plans to progress such a project currently. It is, however, an intriguing glimpse of one of the extreme measures the world may take such climate change not be dealt with through more conventional means.

The five-year research plan has focused on two main SRM approaches: stratospheric aerosol injection and marine cloud brightening.

In the former, particles are injected into the stratosphere to create cooling, in the same way that particles from volcanic eruptions do, or indeed the widely accepted view if the meteorite that curtained the dinosaur’s rein. In the latter sea salt is used to increase the reflectivity of clouds over the ocean.

The report warns: “By their fundamental nature, the current suite of potential SRM methods would not simply negate (explicitly offset) all current or future impacts of climate change induced by increased atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. They would introduce an additional change (an alteration of solar energy at scales determined by the particular SRM method) to the existing, complex climate system, with ramifications which are not now well understood.”

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