Description
- Abstract:
- This thesis project examines a novel method of geoengineering, a means to ameliorate the effects of anthropogenic climate change. As discussed in the first chapter of my thesis, solar radiation management (SRM) strategies reflect short-wave light, cooling the earth without reducing the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases. The SRM strategy explored in this thesis uses reflective biological particles that float on the ocean’s surface and accumulate in the subtropical gyres. Coccolithophores are identified as candidate organisms for generating these reflective particles, but my further investigation of this geoengineering strategy does not depend on any specific properties of these microorganisms. In the second chapter of this thesis, I modify the CESM fully-coupled global climate model to simulate all aspects of this intervention, including the advection of the particles and their optical properties. I then examine three modified CESM simulations which approximate the regional climate effects of ocean SRM geoengineering. In the third and final chapter of my thesis, I develop a statistical approach for filtering the global climate temperature. This climate temperature was previously calculated as a 30-year moving average, a definition that implies that the current climate is unknown. However, using a Kalman filter with dynamic equations derived from basic radiation physics, I separated the annual Gaussian noise uncertainty in temperature (weather) from the climate temperature uncertainty. This approach can be generalized to analyze many additional variables (such as precipitation). Kalman filters thus discern the effects of geoengineering in real time, allowing control algorithms to react and adjust the ocean intervention within the CESM model.
- Notes:
- Senior thesis (ScB)--Brown University, 2020
- Concentration: Applied Math - Biology
Access Conditions
- Rights
- In Copyright
- Restrictions on Use
- All rights reserved. Collection is open for research.
Citation
Nicklas, John Matthew,
"Persistent Reflective Ocean Particulates of Biologic Origin: a Geoengineering Strategy"
(2020).
Applied Mathematics Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/nf8c-fm46
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Code for Reflective Particles of Biologic Origin Thesis
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Applied Mathematics Theses and Dissertations
Theses and Dissertations for the Applied Mathematics department....