Field Experiments in SRM

In May 2025, the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) announced its initial round of awards for their "Exploring Climate Cooling" programme. The programme will ultimately dedicate £56.8 million to fund sunlight reflection methods research. Some of that funding will go towards field experiments. 

There have been only a few SRM field experiments to date, and some have been cancelled due to public pressure. In this episode, we explore what SRM field experiments have taken place, how they've informed scientific knowledge of SRM, talk with some of the scientists leading those experiments, and explore how outdoor field experiments of SRM should or could be governed. 

This episode features interviews with:

• David Keith, professor of Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago and faculty director of the Climate Systems Engineering Initiative (CSEI), an interdisciplinary academic research cluster focused on climate interventions
• John Moore, glaciologist and research professor at University of Lapland in Finland.
• Daniel Harrison, associate professor in the National Marine Science Center at Southern Cross University in Australia and scientific lead for the cooling and shading subprogram of the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program (RRAP), which includes outdoor marine cloud brightening experiments.
• Jan MacDonald, professor of Environmental and Climate Law at the University of Tasmania in Australia.
• Shuchi Talati, governance expert and executive director of the Alliance for Just Deliberation of Solar Geoengineering.

Climate Reflections is a production of SRM360, a non-profit knowledge hub supporting an informed, evidence-based discussion of sunlight reflection methods. For more information and the latest research on SRM, visit SRM360.org.

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