Reflecting sunlight: Exploring solar climate intervention
NASA/Lamont Poole
5:30 – 7:00 pm MDT
Can the Sun be our ally against a warming planet? What can we learn from volcanoes to cool the planet? 2024 was the warmest year on record, with average temperatures more than 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels. Average temperatures are estimated to increase 2.5 - 3℃ by the end of this century.
In her Explorer Series Lecture, Dr. Simone Tilmes discusses the use of solar climate interventions, a type of geoengineering that aims to mitigate some of the effects of a warming planet by reflecting a small portion of sunlight away from Earth. Dr. Tilmes will delve into the scientific benefits and risks surrounding this potential approach.
Simone Tilmes
Dr. Simone Tilmes is a Project Scientist II at U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) and the liaison for the Community Earth System Model (CESM) chemistry-climate working group. Her scientific interests cover the understanding and evaluation of chemical, aerosol and dynamical processes in chemistry-climate models. She has investigated past, present and future evolution of the ozone hole in both hemispheres based on models and observations. Her recent work also focuses on tropospheric chemistry, aerosols, air quality, long-range transport of pollutants, and of tropospheric ozone. She further studies the impact of geoengineering on the Earth’s climate system, the hydrological cycle, and the impact of solar radiation management on dynamics and chemistry in both troposphere and stratosphere. She has published more than 100 peer reviewed papers.