Climate-engineering techniques that cool Earth by reflecting sunlight back into space may be tailored to minimize negative effects on individual regions without compromising overall cooling.

Douglas MacMartin at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and his colleagues used a global climate model to explore the impact of techniques such as the injection of aerosols into the stratosphere. The team then modelled the effects of varying the interventions spatially and seasonally, and showed that the average global temperature could be reduced while still supporting goals such as the recovery of Arctic sea ice.

The model suggests that climate interventions could provide the world with more than a single 'global thermostat', the authors say.

Nature Clim. Change http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1722 (2012)