Surface radiation and material flux perturbation for mechanistically sound cloud feedback in Earth System Models

Radiative geo-experiments, commonly but prematurely dubbed geo"engineering", are concepts aiming to slow down the rate of global warming by restoring Earth's energy balance through modifying electromagnetic radiation fluxes to and from the planet. Impediment to the general acceptance of these concepts by the scientific and policy communities include the inability of current Earth System Models (ESM) to correctly capture cloud feedback processes . Simply put, computational studies underlying much geoengineering concepts are unable to predict future scenarios beyond the qualitative. Yet, spatio-temporally precise descriptions of future impacts are necessary for meaningful discussions and global decision making. In this talk, I highlight several gaps at the field data acquisition stage that ultimately limit the predictive and diagnostic powers of ESM and related in silico techniques. We provide examples to illustrate the need for a more quantitative and mechanistically sound understanding of land-atmosphere exchange. We sketch a developmental roadmap for scaling high-precision high-accuracy sensor deployment and refining field measurement of land-atmosphere fluxes, enabled by emerging surface-based radiative cooling technologies