US Patent 5,003,186 from 1990 detailing Stratospheric Welsbach seeding for reduction of global warming (spraying with aluminum). Assigned to the Hughes Aircraft Company
Here's the brief:
What is claimed is:
1. A method of reducing atmospheric warming due to the greenhouse effect resulting from a layer of gases in the atmosphere which absorb strongly near infrared wavelength radiation, comprising the step of dispersing tiny particles of a material within the gases' layer, the particle material characterized by wavelength-dependent emissivity or reflectivity, in that said material has high emissivities with respect to radiation in the visible and far infrared wavelength spectra, and low emissivity in the near infrared wavelength spectrum, whereby said tiny particles provide a means for converting infrared heat energy into far infrared radiation which is radiated into space.
2. The method of claim wherein said material comprises one or more of the oxides of metals.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein said material comprises aluminum oxide.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein said material comprises thorium oxide.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein said particles are dispersed by seeding the stratosphere with a quantity of said particles at altitudes in the range of seven to thirteen kilometers above the earth's surface.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the size of said particles is in the range of ten to one hundred microns.
7. The method of claim wherein said material comprises a refractory material.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein said material is a Welsbach material.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein the number of said dispersed particles per unit area in the particle layer is greater than or equal to 1/.sigma..sub.abs 1, where 1 is the thickness of the particle layer and .sigma..sub.abs is the absorption coefficient of the particles at the far infrared wavelengths.
10. A method for reducing atmospheric warming due to the greenhouse effect resulting from a greenhouse gases layer, comprising the following step:
seeding the greenhouse gases' layer with a quantity of tiny particles of a material characterized by wavelength-dependent emissivity or reflectivity, in that said materials have high emissivities in the visible and far infrared wavelength spectra and low emissivity in the near infrared wavelength spectrum,
whereby said particles are suspended within said gases' layer and provide a means for converting radiative energy at near infrared wavelengths into radiation at the far infrared wavelengths, permitting some of the converted radiation to escape into space.
11. The method of claim 10 wherein said material comprises one or more of the oxides of metals.
12. The method of claim 10 wherein said material comprises aluminum oxide.
13. The method of claim 10 wherein said material is thorium oxide.
14. The method of claim 10 wherein said seeding is performed at altitudes in the range of seven to thirteen kilometers above the earth's surface.
15. The method of claim 10 wherein said material comprises a refractory material.
16. The method of claim 10 wherein said particle size is in range of ten to one hundred microns.
17. The method of claim 10 wherein said material is a Welsbach material.
18. The method of claim 10 wherein the number of said dispersed particles per unit area in the particle layer is greater than or equal to 1/.sigma..sub.abs 1, where 1 is the thickness of the particle layer and .sigma..sub.abs is the absorption coefficient of the particles at the far infrared wavelengths.
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