An aurora, also known as the polar lights or aurora polaris, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic).
Year: 2021
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
One of the most intuitive SRM approaches would be to reflect or block some solar energy before it reaches the Earth’s atmosphere.
Abu Dhabi Blue Carbon Demonstration Project
Year: 2014
Photographer: Rob Barnes under licence from AGEDI
Passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) promises to provide energy free cooling through thermally-emissive surfaces that reflect incoming solar radiation whilst simultaneously enhancing longwave heat transfer to space through the infrared window of the atmosphere (8–13 µm) (Yin et al. 2020).
Unlike the Arctic, which at its center is an ocean, Antarctica is a landmass that is surrounded by the Southern Ocean.
Year: 2016
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Similar to other ideas to pump water on sea ice (see Sea ice thickening), engineer Sev Clarke (Planetary Restoration n.d.) and engineering student Katy Cartlidge (University of Cambridge 2022) both came up with designs to artificially produce sea ice.
The ice in glaciers has been under enormous pressure for eons. The compression eliminates air and reflective surfaces within the ice.
Year: 2014
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
In 2019, an Indonesian design team came up with the idea of a submersible device that could take in sea water, desalinate it, and then have it freeze into a solid block they called a “new ice baby” (Griffiths, 2019).
Sea ice is frozen seawater that floats on the ocean surface. It forms in both the Arctic and the Antarctic in each hemisphere’s winter, and it retreats, but does not completely disappear, in the summer.
Year: 2015
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
In 2010, Veli Albert Kallio suggested the use of ‘floating cables or levees, even platforms’, to act as ‘seeding points to fasten the seasonal growth of the Arctic Ocean's sea ice’ (Geoengineering Google Groups n.d.)
Sea ice is simply frozen ocean water. It forms, grows, and melts in the ocean. In contrast, icebergs, glaciers, ice sheets, and ice shelves all originate on land.
Year: 1991
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Pykrete is a 6:1 mix of ice and sawdust that has the property of melting slower than regular ice. Several references have been made online to the use of pykrete as an artificial barrier, as artificial sea ice, or as blockers of moulins.
Sustainable forest management involves the maintenance and enhancement of forest environments, ensuring longevity of forest ecosystems while allowing the best possible environmental, economic, social and cultural opportunities now and into the future. In Canada, the world’s largest exporter of forest products, harvest rates and strict jurisdictions are set to ensure long term ecosystem sustainability, protecting soil and water resources and 55% of all energy used by the forestry sector is renewable bio-energy.
Year: 2014
Photographer: Lawrence Hislop
Bio-Energy with Carbon Storage (BECCS) offers a nature-based way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere by consuming biomaterial and removing the remaining carbon residues from the carbon cycle.
The Taymyr Autonomous Area occupies 800,000 sq km, an area the size of England, France and the Netherlands combined.
Year: 2015
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Enhanced weathering (EW) is a measure that seeks to enhance and speed up the process of rock weathering in which CO2 reacts with minerals (Schuiling and Krijgsman 2006) that naturally occurs and already consumes 1.1 Gt CO2 per year (Ciais et al. 2014).
Ice wedges grow as the ice-rich frozen ground contracts during the winter and forms open cracks below the surface.
Year: 2015
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) aims to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by taking it directly out of the air, and removing it from the carbon cycle.
Nutrients which seep out of whale bones fertilize plants, leading to an accumulation of organic matter in the soil.
Year: 2016
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
The most widely studied carbon storage technique is the large-scale application of biochar. Biochar is produced when biomass is pyrolysed - a thermal process in which oxygen for combustion is lacking.
Year: 2013
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Tropospheric Iron Salt Aerosol injection (ISAI) has recently received significant attention as a potential methane mitigation technique.
Gentoo Penguins lay a couple of eggs but if food is in short supply once the eggs have hatched, one chick is often sacrificed in order to feed the stronger of the two.
Year: 2016
Photographer: Peter Prokosch
Inspired by the discovery of CO2 ice caps on Mars, Agee et al. (2013) suggested it might be possible to artificially create similarly cold conditions in the already frigid temperatures of Antarctica that would allow CO2 to 'snow' out of the air.