"The UK is going to lead a space mission to get an absolute measurement of the light reflected off Earth's surface."

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Soldatenko, S. A.; Yusupov, R. M. (2018): Optimal Control of Aerosol Emissions into the Stratosphere to Stabilize the Earth’s Climate. In: Izvestiya Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics 54 (5), S. 480–486. DOI: 10.1134/S0001433818050122.

"The problem of the optimal control of aerosol emissions into the stratosphere to stabilize the Earth’s climate is considered based on the zero-dimensional energy balance model. The global surface-temperature deviation from the undisturbed value is the state variable, and the albedo of the artificial aerosol layer, whose time variations are functionally related to the change in the total mass of aerosol particles and, consequently, the rate of their emissions, is the control variable."

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Li, Y.; Kalnay, E.; Motesharrei, S.; Rivas, J.; Kucharski, F.; Kirk-Davidoff, D. et al. (2018): Climate model shows large-scale wind and solar farms in the Sahara increase rain and vegetation. In: Science 361 (6406), S. 1019–1022. DOI: 10.1126/science.aar5629.

"In this study, we used a climate model with dynamic vegetation to show that large-scale installations of wind and solar farms covering the Sahara lead to a local temperature increase and more than a twofold precipitation increase, especially in the Sahel, through increased surface friction and reduced albedo. The resulting increase in vegetation further enhances precipitation, creating a positive albedo–precipitation–vegetation feedback that contributes ~80% of the precipitation increase for wind farms. This local enhancement is scale dependent and is particular to the Sahara, with small impacts in other deserts."

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Werner, C.; Schmidt, H-P; Gerten, D.; Lucht, W.; Kammann, C. (2018): Biogeochemical potential of biomass pyrolysis systems for limiting global warming to 1.5 °C. In: Environ. Res. Lett. 13 (4), S. 44036. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aabb0e.

"Our results show that meeting the 1.5 °C goal through mitigation strategies including large-scale NE with plantation-based PyCCS may require conversion of natural vegetation to biomass plantations in the order of 133–3280 Mha globally, depending on the applied technology and the NE demand. Advancing towards additional bio-oil sequestration reduces land demand considerably by potentially up to 60%, while the benefits from yield increases account for another 3%–38% reduction (equalling 82–362 Mha). However, when mitigation commitments are increased by high balancing claims, even the most advanced PyCCS technologies and biochar-mediated co-benefits cannot compensate for delayed action towards phasing-out fossil fuels."

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