A Review of Some Experimental Spray Methods for Marine Cloud Brightening

Gary Cooper, David Johnston, Jack Foster, Lee Galbraith, Armand Neukermans, Robert Ormond, John Rush, Qin Wang

Fund for Innovative Climate and Energy Research (FICER), Sunnyvale, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/ijg.2013.41009                

Abstract

Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB), should it ever need to be deployed, envisions the formation of 10¹⁷salt Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) per second coming from each of several thousand vessels deployed worldwide. The creation of this many nuclei on such a vast scale, from micron- or submicron-sized seawater droplets, preferably mono-disperse, poses a considerable engineering challenge. Various existing or experimental spray methods were investigated for feasibility, resulting in the identification of a few with promising results. Electro-spraying from Taylor cone-jets, using either silicon micromachined long capillaries or short capillary polymer substrates attached to a porous substrate, appears to have the best potential for implementation of all the methods that have been investigated so far.

Keywords

Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB); Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN); Taylor Cone-Jet

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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