The fundamental science question behind marine cloud brightening (MCB) as a climate intervention mechanism is whether the reflectivity of marine boundary layer clouds can be deliberately increased…

The fundamental science question behind marine cloud brightening (MCB) as a climate intervention mechanism is whether the reflectivity of marine boundary layer clouds can be deliberately increased in a controlled manner by releasing aerosol particles into the marine boundary layer in targeted regions. The proposed work focuses on quantifying the full range of cloud responses in meteorological regimes under which MCB might be implemented, using realistic background and injected aerosol configurations. This is done through two modeling studies using a large eddy simulation model. These model studies are designed to (a) establish the fidelity of the model in simulating the evolution of low marine clouds, absent perturbation ('baseline' tests) and (b) systematically explore how low marine clouds respond to realistic MCB aerosol injection schemes for the range of meteorological and background aerosol conditions present in the ambient environment in likely target regions ('perturbation studi