What if clouds could be more reflective? Next seminar

“Clouds that wander through the sky, 
Sometimes low and sometimes high; 
In the darkness of the night, 
In the sunshine warm and bright. 
Ah! I wonder much if you 
Have any useful work to do.”

— Anonymous, McGuffey’s Second Eclectic Reader

It turns out that clouds could have a lot of "useful work" to do—and they could make a real difference in mitigating effects of climate change. This Thursday, we'll hear from three engineers who are looking to the skies as they seek to protect the planet.

Dr Dante McGrath, a researcher at the Centre for Climate Repair, is working with a team at Southern Cross University to investigate how Marine Cloud Brightening could protect the Great Barrier Reef from coral bleaching.

Unlike many scientific terms, Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) does precisely what it says on the tin. Researchers are studying the methods and effects of spraying seawater to form brighter, whiter clouds— clouds that could reflect more sunlight and prevent the damaging warming of the ocean beneath.

This Thursday, Dante will share how MCB could protect coral reefs, the Arctic, and, by extension, global climate stability.

We’ll also be joined by Stanford University professor Adam Boies, who is researching the impact of contrails - those thin white clouds you’ll see behind planes - on global warming. Unlike the clouds formed with MCB, these clouds are too thin to reflect sunlight, and instead, their ice crystals can trap heat. Studies suggest that these clouds have a much bigger effect on global warming than is often conveyed, so Boies and his team are investigating the potential to do something about them.

Finally, we’ll hear from Orla, a student at the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, who is seeking to improve filtration methods for MCB nozzles as part of the Centre for Climate Repair’s technology development research.

There will be time for questions at the end-- after all, questions are what we do! 

Join us at 1pm, Thursday 13th February, in the Department of Engineering’s Lecture Room 4, as we ask: What if clouds could be more reflective?