Geoengineering Earth's radiation balance to mitigate CO2-induced climate change

To counteract anthropogenic climate change, several schemes have been proposed to diminish solar radiation incident on Earth's surface. These geo-engineering schemes could reverse global annual mean warming; however, it is unclear to what extent they would mitigate regional and seasonal climate change, because radiative forcing from greenhouse gases such as CO2 differs from that of sunlight. No previous study has directly addressed this issue. In the NCAR CCM3 atmospheric general circulation model, we reduced the solar luminosity to balance the increased radiative forcing from doubling atmospheric CO2. Our results indicate that geo-engineering schemes could markedly diminish regional and seasonal climate change from increased atmospheric CO2, despite differences in radiative forcing patterns. Nevertheless, geo-engineering schemes could prove environmentally risky.