Cirrus cloud thinning (Q388)

Subject, term, tag: Cirrus cloud thinning

Cirrus cloud thinning (CCT)

Language	Label	Description	Also known as
English	Cirrus cloud thinning	Subject, term, tag: Cirrus cloud thinning	Cirrus cloud thinning (CCT)

Statements

Instance of

Category

source version

IPCC Glossary v1.5

1 reference

Source

https://apps.ipcc.ch/glossary/

date accessed

27 May 2026

Part of

Working Group I: Climate Change 2021 – The Physical Science Basis

0 references

Definition

One of several radiation modification approaches to counter the warming caused by greenhouse gases (GHGs). In this approach, it is proposed to reduce the amount of cirrus clouds by injecting ice nucleating substances in the upper troposphere. The reduction in cirrus clouds is expected to increase the amount of longwave cooling to space resulting in a planetary cooling. Although cirrus cloud thinning primarily affects the longwave radiation budget of our planet, it is often identified as one of the solar radiation modification (SRM) approaches in the literature. (English)