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While the logistical difficulties of stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) are not generally seen as the central limiting factor controlling its eventual use, they are also not trivial. Even without logistical constraints, considering the impact of high climate velocities, a sensible SAI deployment might take several decades to scale up to >0.5°C of cooling. Given this, the early stages of SAI deployment might be characterised by, first, logistical constraints on altitude and latitude; and second, small magnitude of injection and thus a low signal-to-noise ratio. These early stages would also offer opportunities to test the model-derived estimates of many aspects of the science and engineering of SAI.

This interdisciplinary session will explore the implications of these features of early-stage SAI, and to promote more concrete discussions about the potential paths to deployment.