HR: 11:00h
AN: GC52A-05    [Abstracts]
TI: Will sunshade geoengineering schemes lead to reduced rainfall?
AU: * Bala, G
EM: bala1@LLNL.GOV
AF: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, L-103 Atmospheric Science Division Energy and Environment Direcotrate, Livermore, CA 94550,
AB: The rapidly rising CO2 level in the atmosphere has led to proposals of climate stabilization via "Geoengineering" schemes that would mitigate climate change by intentionally manipulating the solar radiation incident on earth's surface. In this paper, we address the impact of these climate stabilization schemes on the global hydrological cycle using equilibrium simulations from an atmospheric general circulation model coupled to a slab ocean model. We show that climate stabilization would tend to mitigate the surface temperature changes, but it could lead to a decline in the intensity of the hydrologic cycle. Shortwave forcing is more effective in driving changes in global precipitation than is CO2 forcing of a similar magnitude; this results in a less intense hydrologic cycle in the geoengineered climate. Further research is recommended to explore the response of different components of the climate system to forcing mechanisms.
DE: 1600 GLOBAL CHANGE
DE: 1620 Climate dynamics (0429, 3309)
DE: 1626 Global climate models (3337, 4928)
DE: 1630 Impacts of global change (1225)
DE: 1800 HYDROLOGY
SC: Global Environmental Change [GC]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting