Summary
This research paper analyses climate model simulations from the Geoengineering Large Ensemble to explore the projected impact of artificial sunlight reduction on climate extremes sub-Saharan Africa with continued emissions of greenhouse gases. It found that artificially altering the sunlight reduces mean and extreme temperatures, while the effect on rainfall is not as linear and remains uncertain.
Abstract
Anthropogenic warming is projected to increase the magnitude and frequency of extreme events, whose impacts are already being felt in vulnerable regions in sub-Saharan Africa. Solar radiation management (SRM) has been proposed as an interim measure to offset warming while emissions are reduced; however, the impact of stratospheric SRM on regional climate extremes have not yet been explored, particularly in the Paris agreement context. We investigate the potential impact of SRM on temperature and rainfall means and extremes over sub-Saharan Africa using simulations from the Geoengineering Large Ensemble. We found SRM significantly reduces temperature means and extremes; however, the effect on precipitation is not as linear. The results should be interpreted with caution as they are particular to this approach of SRM and this modelling experiment.
