17 juni 2025
Joint ESA Workshop on Solar Radiation Modification (SRM)
Workshop on the topic of SRM, bringing together international experts on the subject.
On Tuesday, June 17, the Earth Observation Center (EOC) at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Munich-Oberpfaffenhofen hosted a workshop on Solar Radiation Modification (SRM), bringing together international experts on the subject.
The workshop was organized by the ESA-funded projects ACtIon4Cooling (led by DLR MF-ATP) and Statistics (GRASP France), and welcomed over 50 experts to this one-day event. The agenda focused on four keynote talks delivered by specialists from ETH Zurich, the University of Exeter, TU Delft, and the University of Chicago, along with two panel discussions featuring experts from GRASP France, ETH Zurich, National Observatory Athens, TU Delft, Cornell University, and Imperial College London.
The goal of the ESA-funded ACtIon4Cooling project is to investigate the potential impacts, risks, and side effects of possible SRM techniques — specifically, Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI), Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB), and Cirrus Cloud Thinning (CCT). To this end, the project analyzes natural analogues, such as the climatic effects of past volcanic eruptions or the influence of ship track clouds on the climate. Furthermore, climate simulations using the ICON model are conducted to assess the global effects these SRM techniques could have.
The ESA-funded project does not plan or advocate for any SRM deployment. Its purpose is limited to study the potential impacts, side effects, and risks of SRM of observed naturally occuring processes using existing Earth Observation (EO) datasets. Likewise, neither ESA, nor any of the ACtIon4Cooling or STATISTICS partners aim for SRM as a climate intervention.
ACtIon4Cooling project website: https://climate.esa.int/de/solar-radiation-modification/action4cooling/
STATISTICS project website: https://www.grasp-earth.com/portfolio/statistics/
