United States: Scientists say that spraying diamond dust into the sky could help slow down climate change and cool the Earth. New research shows that releasing 5.5 million tons of diamond dust into the atmosphere every year could lower global temperatures by 1.8°F (1°C) because the dust reflects sunlight.
This cooling could reduce the warming caused by human activity since the Industrial Revolution, which has raised temperatures by about 2.45°F (1.36°C).
The research is part of a field of geoengineering that is searching for methods to counteract climate change by decreasing solar irradiance reaching the Earth.
As reported by the livescience, “It’s a very controversial topic,” said the co-author of the study Sandro Vattioni, the researcher in experimental atmospheric physics at ETH Zurich. “But there are many scientists who want to forbid doing research — even research — on the topic.”
As part of efforts to hereby lower the amount of heat produced by the sun, scientists have said that tiny particles, known as aerosols, that reflect the sun’s rays back into space should be used.
Spraying these aerosols into the stratosphere – the middle layer of Earth’s atmosphere at a height of 7.5- 31 miles or 12- 50km above the surface of the planet shall ensure that they remain in the stratosphere for at least one year before they drop back to surface of the earth the researchers say.
SAI draws the rationale from cooling which sometimes occurs following major volcanic eruptions. From the chimneys of the earth fires comes those enormous columns of smoke that contain rather sulfur dioxide.
This gas is oxidized in the stratosphere to form sulfuric acid and the aerosols that form from it are fine sulfate aerosols that reflect sunlight back into space — where it cannot warm the Earth.
Past studies have looked at the realism of injecting sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere to help fight climate change, but there are several drawbacks, according to Vattioni.
The sulphuric acid aerosols are effective absorbers of solar and terrestrial heat, and it is possible that their introduction into the stratosphere could cause warming of that layer which in turn could have an impact on the wind systems of the stratosphere.
Any perturbations could then affect the troposphere — the layer of the atmosphere between the stratosphere and the Earth’s surface — and result in fluctuations in global rainfall and circulation, he pointed out.