2021-04-01 15:00:53 GMT2021-04-01 23:00:53(Beijing Time) Sina English
US and European scientists have called off a controversial balloon test flight that was to take place in Sweden’s far north in June, part of a disputed solar geoengineering experiment to artificially cool the planet.
A team of Harvard University scientists had been planning to launch a high-altitude balloon from the Esrange Space Station in the Swedish town of Kiruna, to test whether it could in future carry equipment to release solar radiation-reflecting particles into the Earth’s atmosphere.
The project has been dubbed SCoPEx, short for “Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment.”
The phrase “blocking out the sun” conjures up all manner of horrors, from the smoke and ash of a nuclear winter wiping us all out to Mr. Burns putting up a giant metal disc and plunging Springfield into darkness on
The Simpsons. But for a group of researchers at Harvard, it might hold the key to reversing the damage caused by climate change. Called the “Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment,” or “SCoPEx,” the project involves reflecting back UV rays from the sun by using a balloon dispensing a small cloud of chalk particles, about the same amount as a bag of bread flour, at high altitude over the Arctic Circle. It’s a small demonstration of the process of artificially altering the climate known as “geoengineering.”