Unintended winter–early spring warming over North America caused by tropical and subtropical deployment of marine cloud brightening

IF 9.6 1区地球科学 Q1 METEOROLOGY & ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES

npj Climate and Atmospheric Science Pub Date : 2026-08-26 DOI:10.1038/s41612-026-01525-2

Siyu Zhao, Long Cao, Yu Fang, Panxi Dai, Jiaying Zhang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Marine cloud brightening (MCB) aims to reduce global warming, but its regional impacts remain uncertain. Using the Community Earth System Model, we implement MCB over a portion of tropical and subtropical oceans under SSP2-4.5. Despite overall cooling, MCB induces significant warming over mid-eastern North America in winter-to-early spring. The response originates mainly in the tropical and subtropical eastern Pacific, where MCB cools the atmosphere by reflecting solar radiation. This change modifies extratropical circulations through Gill-type and Rossby wave responses. The circulation changes warm mid-eastern North America via two pathways: suppressed synoptic disturbance activity, which reduces cloud cover and increases downward shortwave radiation, and enhanced positive temperature advection. This MCB-induced warming resembles that associated with a strong La Niña event, with implications for snowpack and water resources. Our results highlight potential unintended risks of regional MCB and the need for a better understanding of process-level teleconnection response to climate intervention strategies.

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热带和亚热带海洋云变亮的部署造成了北美地区冬季和早春的意外变暖

海洋云增亮（MCB）旨在减缓全球变暖，但其区域影响仍不确定。利用群落地球系统模型，我们在SSP2-4.5下对部分热带和亚热带海洋进行了MCB。尽管整体变冷，MCB在冬季至早春期间在北美中东部引起了显著的变暖。这种响应主要来自热带和亚热带东太平洋，在那里，MCB通过反射太阳辐射来冷却大气。这种变化通过吉尔型和罗斯比波响应改变了温带环流。环流通过两个途径使北美中东部变暖：抑制天气扰动活动，减少云量并增加向下的短波辐射，增强正温平流。这种由mcb引起的变暖类似于强La Niña事件，对积雪和水资源有影响。我们的研究结果强调了区域MCB潜在的意外风险，以及更好地理解过程级远程连接对气候干预策略的响应的必要性。

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来源期刊

npj Climate and Atmospheric Science Earth and Planetary Sciences-Atmospheric Science

CiteScore

8.80

自引率

3.30%

发文量

审稿时长

21 weeks

期刊介绍： npj Climate and Atmospheric Science is an open-access journal encompassing the relevant physical, chemical, and biological aspects of atmospheric and climate science. The journal places particular emphasis on regional studies that unveil new insights into specific localities, including examinations of local atmospheric composition, such as aerosols. The range of topics covered by the journal includes climate dynamics, climate variability, weather and climate prediction, climate change, ocean dynamics, weather extremes, air pollution, atmospheric chemistry (including aerosols), the hydrological cycle, and atmosphere–ocean and atmosphere–land interactions. The journal welcomes studies employing a diverse array of methods, including numerical and statistical modeling, the development and application of in situ observational techniques, remote sensing, and the development or evaluation of new reanalyses.