Cloud Brightening Field Trip 2021

’Cloud brightening’, an innovative new technique to prevent coral bleaching by spraying microscopic seawater particles into the air. Cloud brightening enhances the clouds, helping them to reflect solar energy away from the Reef which protects coral from bleaching. Southern Cross University is leading the field trials with the support of the partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. Lead researcher Dr Dan Harrison of Southern Cross University explains the 2021 field trip where researchers gathered critical data on the behaviour of the atmosphere over the Reef during the summer months, when corals are most at risk of bleaching. They also mapped the movement of the atomised sea salt plume to better understand how cloud brightening could be most effectively deployed over the Reef. An initial trial of the prototype cloud brightening equipment in 2020 proved it is feasible to pump seawater and atomise it into tiny droplets at a rate of trillions per second.