Larry Burford wrote 18 Aug 2006 : 15:12:30: "I predict that the latest climate models would have to be scrapped after a little bit of such testing."
H2O has been a big problem for Climate Change scientists because it is the most important greenhouse gas in many ways and these most potent effects are much more difficult to model than CO2 effects, which is why H2O modelling hasn¡¯t quite fully happened yet.
H2O¡¯s two hydrogen arms vibrate more easily than CO2¡¯s two Oxygen arms, because they are least massive and H2O forms clouds in all of its solid, liquid, gas states (because H2O is extremely sticky), while the clouds of each of these states have different albedo and greenhouse, Incoming light and outgoing heat radiation scattering, effects.
Producing H2O clouds to increase albedo to reduce Global Warming (GW) would be a tricky (possibly impossible) enterprise, because GW-enhanced hurricane activity ultimately drives a significant portion of low level water clouds into the stratosphere where they contribute to GW as high level cirrus cloud. Jet aircraft contrails (condensation trails) do this directly, at least locally.
Cirrus clouds comprise ice crystals which are supposed to be stronger infrared resonators than water droplets. They thus have a stronger greenhouse effect than lower level clouds comprising water. It has thus been argued that the big increase in high level cirrus cloud cover which has accompanied GW is a significant co-contributor to GW, along with CO2, despite its opposite, increased albedo effect.
If it turns out we cannot use H2O to reverse GW, and we cannot sufficiently, economically realise any of the other ideas, we¡¯ve always got sulphur to fall back on. SO2, SO3 clouds would potently reduce GW by increasing Earth¡¯s albedo.
Someone has already suggested adding sulphur to jet aircraft fuel. I improve on this idea: Inject the sulphur into jet engines only in the stratosphere, so that the biospheric troposphere gets less polluted.
