Increasing humidity around glaciers and ice sheets

Ice sheets and glaciers

Engineer Paul Klinkman has suggested increasing the water content around glaciers and ice sheets to increase precipitation over them (see Klinkman Solar Design, U2).

Although it is unsure how this would work exactly, Klinkman suggested constructing ‘fog-creating ponds’ that would increase the moisture content of the air. Klinkman has also suggested increasing moisture content by using a ‘water vapour chimney’ (See Klinkman Solar Design H14). Alternatively the increased warmth associated with open water will increase ablation and calving rates in Greenland. This has been proposed as a likely mechanism for variations in terminus position. Historical mass loss is correlated with heat flow from surrounding seas (Yue et al. 2021; Moore et al. 2019)

Technological Readiness Level (TRL)

Low 1

Technological Readiness Level (TRL)

A technology with a TRL of 1-3: TRL 1 – Basic; TRL 2 – Concept formulated; TRL 3 – Experimental proof of concept

Read more about the Methodology 🡥

Scalability

Low 1

This would likely only be effective near the coast.

Scalability

Physically unable to scale; sub-linear/logarithmic efficiency of scalability

Read more about the Methodology 🡥

Timeliness for near-future effects

Low 1

Timeliness for near-future effects

Implemented too late to make a significant difference

Read more about the Methodology 🡥

Northern + Arctic potential

Low 1

Northern + Arctic potential

No noticeable extra positive effect beyond the global average; technology is unsuited to the Arctic

Read more about the Methodology 🡥

Global potential

Low 1

Global potential

Insignificant to be detected at a global scale

Read more about the Methodology 🡥

Cost - benefit

Unknown 0

Environmental risks

Low risk 3

Environmental risks

Very limited, site-specific effects restricted to the solution deployment location only

Read more about the Methodology 🡥

Community impacts

Neutral 2

Community impacts

Unnoticeable or negligible positive or negative effects

Read more about the Methodology 🡥

Ease of reversibility

Easy 3

Ease of reversibility

Easily reversible naturally

Read more about the Methodology 🡥

Risk of termination shock

Low risk 3

Risk of termination shock

Low or insignificant termination shock or damage

Read more about the Methodology 🡥

Legality/governance

Possible 3

Legality/governance

Currently legal to deploy, with governance structures in place to facilitate it and/or financial incentives to develop it

Read more about the Methodology 🡥

Scientific/media attention

Low 1

Although the idea surfaced several times in the Geoengineering Google Group, it seems to not have been picked up.

Scientific/media attention

Very low attention from individuals and/or abandoned ideas; low media attention; no commercial interest.

Read more about the Methodology 🡥

References

Klinkman Solar Designs. n.d. U2. Fog and nearby mountains. https://klinkmansolar.com/knightfog.htm#U2 [Accessed 8 July 2024]

Klinkman Solar Designs. n.d. H14. Water vapor can deliver extra updraft power. https://klinkmansolar.com/kchimney.htm#H14 [Accessed 8 July 2024]

Moore, J.C., Yue, C., Zhao, L., Guo, X., Watanabe, S., Ji, D. 2019 Greenland ice sheet response to stratospheric aerosol injection geoengineering. Earth's Future, 7 https://doi.org/10.1029

Yue, C, L. Steffensen Schmidt, L. Zhao, M. Wolovick, J.C. Moore 2021 Vatnajökull mass loss under solar geoengineering due to the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation Earth’s Future 9. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EF002052

Related ideas

Land-based measures

Enhancing permafrost refreezing with air pipes

Thermosyphon technologies that passively cool soils if the air temperature is colder than surface temperatures have been used on a smaller scale to stabilize permafrost that supports infrastructure (Xu and Goering, 2008).

River Ölfusá just North of Selfoss, South Iceland

Oceans & marine

River Liming

The pH of water is lowered when it takes up atmospheric carbon. Given that the Earth’s oceans serve as a major carbon sink, there is increasing interest in the possibility to artificially increase the alkalinity of water to restore pH to previous levels, and/or increase carbon uptake potential.

Melting glacier ice, Alpefjord, Northeast Greenland National Park

Ice sheets and glaciers

Artificial glaciers

Several high mountain communities around the world have a long history of building barriers and other constructions that trap or hold meltwater by refreezing it (Nüsser et al. 2019b).

Industry

Polar chimneys

Some have suggested modifying incoming and outgoing radiation budgets in the Arctic to mitigate the warming in the region.

Coastal Archipelago Park of the South Coast ("Sørlandet") of Norway, colors at the shoreline (1)

Oceans & marine

Artificial downwelling

Artificial downwelling (AD) is an idea to pump upper layer water deeper down into the ocean.

Sea ice, North-West Spitsbergen National Park, Svalbard

Sea ice & icebergs

Sea ice growth management

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.)

Cultivating algae for export to Japan, Zanzibar

Oceans & marine

Seaweed and macro algae cultivation

The potential of carbon sequestration by marine based plants such as mangroves, seagrass and algae, often referred to as blue carbon, and the importance of better understanding it, has clearly been recognised (Mcleod et al. 2011). The IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (2019) concluded blue carbon can play an important role in both climate regulation and adaptation. The term algae groups together several kinds of marine photosynthetic organisms. These are often subdivided into very small microalgae like phytoplankton, and larger macroalgae like kelp and seaweed. Although there is still large uncertainty about the total amount of carbon sequestered by these marine organisms, a recent estimate by Duarte et al. (2022) indicated that all macroalgae took in as much CO2 as the Amazon rainforest.

Atmosphere / solar radiation

Mixed phase regime cloud thinning over the polar oceans during winter

Clouds play an important role in the Earth’s energy system. The effects of clouds are complex and diverse, often having simultaneous cooling and warming effects. Mixed-phase clouds (MPC) are clouds that contain water vapor, ice particles, and supercooled water droplets. MPCs are still poorly understood and 'notoriously difficult to represent in numerical weather prediction and climate models' (Korolev et al. 2017).