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takyon writes:

Deep fat fryers may help form cooling clouds

Fatty acids released into the air from cooking may contribute to the formation of clouds that cool the climate, say scientists. Fatty acid molecules comprise about 10% of fine particulates over London, and such particles help seed clouds. But researchers dismiss the idea that cooking fats could be used as a geo-engineering tool to reduce warming. Instead, the research is designed to help reduce uncertainties about the role of cooking fats on climate.

Researchers believe the fatty molecules arrange themselves into complex 3-D structures in atmospheric droplets. These aerosols persist for longer than normal and can seed the formation of clouds which experts say can have a cooling effect on the climate. The authors say the study will shed new light on the long term role of aerosols on temperatures. Atmospheric aerosols are one of the areas of climate science where there are considerable uncertainties.

Scientists have warned against using stratospheric aerosol injection to attempt to geoengineer the climate:

Blasting aerosols into the atmosphere to fight climate change could have the unfortunate side effect of creating drought and more hurricanes, according to new research.

Some scientists believe that sending a plane to spray sulfate aerosols into the sky will help cool down the Earth. But drastic moves might lead to unintended consequences, according to scientists who ran a model to see how spraying the sulfate would affect our climate. The model simulates how an annual spray of aerosols in both hemispheres would affect the climate between 2020 and 2070 — and it found that there could be negative consequences in both regions. The results were published today in the journal Nature Communications [open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01606-0] [DX].

Fried turkey, anyone?

Complex three-dimensional self-assembly in proxies for atmospheric aerosols (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01918-1) (DX)

Original Submission