2023: Changes in Shipping Emissions as Natural Analogues for Climate Intervention
Researchers seek to detect changes in surface climate due to novel regulations (from 2020) affecting the amount of sulfate in shipping fuels. This reduction has affected cloud nucleation and resulted in less cloud coverage, especially over the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This has led to questions around the potential for these policies to have affected numerous weather systems in the last two years, such as El Niño and fire conditions in Canada. This project will leverage various observations and large collections of climate model simulations for better clarity. These findings should have broader implications about climate-altering regulations to better inform policymakers and the public.
Investigator: Daniele Visioni, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences