The idea behind the marine cloud-brightening (MCB) geoengineering technique is that seeding marine stratocumulus clouds with copious quantities of roughly monodisperse sub-micrometre sea water particles might significantly enhance the cloud droplet number concentration, and thereby the cloud albedo and possibly longevity. This would produce a cooling, which general circulation model (GCM) computations suggest could—subject to satisfactory resolution of technical and scientific problems identified herein—have the capacity to balance global warming up to the carbon dioxide-doubling point. We describe herein an account of our recent research on a number of critical issues associated with MCB. This involves (i) GCM studies, which are our primary tools for evaluating globally the effectiveness of MCB, and assessing its climate impacts on rainfall amounts and distribution, and also polar sea-ice cover and thickness; (ii) high-resolution modelling of the effects of seeding on marine stratocumulus, which are required to understand the complex array of interacting processes involved in cloud brightening; (iii) microphysical modelling sensitivity studies, examining the influence of seeding amount, seed-particle salt-mass, air-mass characteristics, updraught speed and other parameters on cloud–albedo change; (iv) sea water spray-production techniques; (v) computational fluid dynamics studies of possible large-scale periodicities in Flettner rotors; and (vi) the planning of a three-stage limited-area field research experiment, with the primary objectives of technology testing and determining to what extent, if any, cloud albedo might be enhanced by seeding marine stratocumulus clouds on a spatial scale of around 100×100 km. We stress that there would be no justification for deployment of MCB unless it was clearly established that no significant adverse consequences would result. There would also need to be an international agreement firmly in favour of such action.

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Laser-Doppler measurements of the longitudinal and circumferential velocity components are reported for developing turbulent flow in a strongly curved 180 deg pipe and its downstream tangent. In the bend, the mean longitudinal velocity component changes little after θ = 90 deg, but the circumferential component never achieves a fully-developed state. Similar behavior is observed in the normal stresses, with large levels of flow anisotropy arising everywhere in the bend and downstream tangent. Between θ = 90 deg and X/D = 5, the circumferential velocity profiles display reversals of the secondary flow which are essentially independent of the Reynolds number. Predictions of the flow development are presented based on a “semi-elliptic” truncation of the Reynolds equations in the main part of the flow with the standard k-ε effective viscosity model used to approximate the turbulent stress field. In the immediate vicinity of the wall a simpler treatment, PSL, is adopted that allows the inclusion of the very fine mesh needed to resolve the viscous sublayer without excessive computer storage. The calculated behavior displays reasonably good agreement with the measurements in the bend, including the secondary flow reversals. Downstream of the bend, however, the rate of recovery of the flow is too slow, which points to the same weakness in the turbulence model as found in the recovery region of the flow over a backward-facing step.