Increasing the Ocean Albedo with Nanobubbles and Thickening Sea Ice Could Help Restore the Climate

Sev Clarke, Kevin Lister, Subarna Bhattacharyya, Detelina Ivanova & Leslie Field.

Abstract

The Polar Restoration Action Group (PRAG), a part of the Center for Climate Restoration, is coordinating work on several alternatives for ice restoration in the Arctic, including surface albedo modification, ice thickening and marine cloud brightening.

This presentation focuses on two exploratory concepts: injecting long-lived nanobubbles¹stabilized with marine surfactants into the surface microlayer of sunlit oceans to increase their albedo and evaporative cooling; and thickening sea ice².

The monodisperse nanobubblesare generated using Desai Zimmermann fluidic oscillator (DZFO) technology and solar power. Increasing reflectivity by just 3.7³in 1,120W/m²could offset the warming effect of doubling pre-industrial atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations. This should be possible with net beneficial effects on marine life. Tethered, the floating units, called fiztops, producing the nanobubbles might also protect coral reefs.

Another exploratory project is to thicken sea ice by up to hundreds of metres by intermittently pumping seawater onto existing sea ice using power from floating wind turbines to form polynya-punctuated, ice shield arrays. Prospective additional benefits are: thermal convection to the tropopause; ocean cooling; methane clathrate stabilization; strengthening overturning currents; and that as the residual brine absorbs more oxygen and CO₂from the atmosphere, it is taken to the abyssal depths where it combines with seabed carbonate to form benign bicarbonate.

References:

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- Zhou, S., Flynn, P.C., Geoengineering Downwelling Ocean Currents: a Cost Assessment. Climatic Change(2005) 71: 203-220 DOI: 10.1007/s10584-005-5933-0

- Myhre, G., Highwood, E. J., Shine, K. P. & Stordal, F. New estimates of radiative forcing due to well mixed greenhouse gases. Geophys. Res. Lett. 25, 2715-2718 (1998).