Surface-Based Cooling
Also known as: Ground Engineering
Surface-based cooling means changing what happens where sunlight actually lands — on roofs, roads, canopies and water. It is safer and simpler than atmospheric geoengineering, and its effects can be measured and reversed.
Scientific detail
Surface-based cooling modifies the shortwave and longwave components of the surface energy balance through albedo enhancement and radiative emission, producing local cooling with global-scale radiative-forcing implications when deployed at area. Unlike SRM, it is spatially bounded, physically reversible and directly observable — properties MEER frames as 'ground engineering'.
Related terms
Reflective Cooling
Cooling by bouncing sunlight away from a surface before it can be absorbed as heat.
Passive Daytime Radiative Cooling
A material that stays cooler than the air even under direct sunlight by radiating heat to the cold sky.
Albedo
The fraction of sunlight a surface reflects — 0 is black, 1 is a perfect mirror.
Geoengineering
Deliberate large-scale interventions in Earth's climate system, spanning solar radiation management and carbon dioxide removal.
Adaptive Mitigation
Interventions that adapt to warming today and reduce warming tomorrow.