WO2008104568A1

WO2008104568A1 - Timed control of the global radiation balance to influence and control the climate and weather

Info

Publication number: WO2008104568A1
Application number: PCT/EP2008/052384
Authority: WO
Inventors: Stefan Brosig
Original assignee: Stefan Brosig
Priority date: 2007-02-28
Filing date: 2008-02-27
Publication date: 2008-09-04
Also published as: DE102007018168A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a timed control of the albedo (reflection power) of the earth's surface, following a daylight cycle. Strongly reflecting or scattering surfaces (high albedo, poor absorber) arranged over a surface are removed, moved or reduced in size at night such that the material beneath of low albedo (good absorber) can irradiate the heat thereof into space. Said device uses the so-called Kirchhoff law of radiation according to which the degree of absorption and degree of emission are the same in thermal equilibrium. Good absorbers are also good emitters, poor absorbers are poor emitters. (The law is also in close approximation true for bodies which are not in thermal equilibrium). Strong cooling effects can be achieved by using said method over large contiguous surfaces. Using many small reflecting surfaces at a distance from each other the total cooling is less but the surfaces underneath receive some sunlight at certain times due to the motion of the sun in the sky (important for agricultural use). This cooling can rapidly be achieved in contrast to the effects as a consequence of reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases. The invention also permits individual countries or groups of countries to locally stabilise their climates should other countries not sufficiently reduce the elevated emissions of greenhouse gases adequately or even continue therewith. The invention also permits the countering of a strong cooling of the globe ('ice age'), wherein in contrast the albedo is reduced during the day and increased at night. This leads to a daytime increase in radiation absorption and hence a warming of the surface and a retention of the heat during the night.

Description

TITLE: Timed control of the Earth's radiation budget

Influence and control of the environment and the weather

DESCRIPTION

Technical field The invention relates to the influence of climate and weather, with the noticeable

Increasing warming of the earth enjoys the highest priority in recent times.

Famine by dryness and expansion of deserts and large-scale

Escape movements of population groups due to an increase in population

Sea levels (mainly affected by Bangladesh and many island populations, but also China) are just a few of the impending scenarios. In the meantime, most scientists are aware of the increase in the concentrations of climate-warming gases (e.g.

Carbon dioxide, methane) for heating the lower layers of the atmosphere. Although these gases allow the incident sunlight up to

Penetrate the earth's surface (they have a "window" in the spectral range of the visible light), but not the long-wave heat radiation, which differs from that after absorption of the

The heat radiation will thus be held close to the earth's surface for a long time, before being finally reintroduced by non-directional absorption and emission into the earth's surface

The UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), in the third part of its 2007 study of humankind, will give mankind time to turn the tide until 2020 at the latest a major and irreversible disaster can be prevented.

The estimated cost of this is $ 16 trillion. This huge sum is demanded for a reduction of the emission of the greenhouse gases to a level, with which then "only" to a further warming by 2 degrees would come

So sum would not even stabilize today's climate!

State of the art The term geo-engineering is used for large-scale methods

Climate influence summarized. A sub-field of geoengineering also deals with means by which the incidence of solar radiation or its absorbed portion is artificially influenced. For example, thoughts on influencing the albedo, the light thrown back from the earth's surface into space, by means of light-absorbing or - repelling / scattering materials (as the earth's surface is defined, which from the universe vertically from above is visible.) Or it is in An earth orbit placed large mirrors that allow to regulate the solar radiation to the earth by either reduce it to achieve a cooling, or enlarge it to one

Cause warming.

A new proposal (R. Angel, PNAS, vol 103, no. 46, 17184-17189, 14.1 1.2006) proposes to reduce the sunlight incident to the earth by 1, 8% by interposing the inner Lagrangian point L1 between Sun and Earth (about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth) would place about 16 trillion slices of a light-deflecting material. The cost after optimization: several trillion dollars. calculated

Period until installation: 25 years.

Other ideas include floating light reflecting plastic discs on the oceans or white plastic tarpaulins in the deserts to increase the albedo (return to space).

Still other proposals see the production of artificial aerosols in high

Air layers before.

Disadvantages of the described solutions are enormous costs, low effectiveness and / or the impossibility to undo the triggered changes.

Object of the invention

The object of the invention is a method and a device that allows the climate and weather more favorable and above all to regulate in the short term influenced.

Presentation of the invention

The object is achieved by that specified in the characterizing part of claims 1 and 7

Characteristics solved.

An essential feature of the invention is the time-dependent control of the reflection / light scattering and absorption of near-surface surfaces substantially in a day / night rhythm.

The invention uses for this purpose the Kirchhoff radiation law.

Next state of the art are the described white plastic tarpaulins

Desert soil. This creates a constant (!) Albedo that is higher than that of the original desert floor.

Although this higher albedo leads to a lower absorption of sunlight in the near-surface area and increased reflection of sunlight in the

Space. The white surface heats up during the day less than a darker or rougher surface, such as the natural desert soil. At night, however, the effect is reversed! The white area radiates less heat into space than a darker or even black of the same temperature would do! This is a statement of Kirchhoff's law of radiation, since otherwise a perpetual motion of the second kind could be constructed, which would amount to a violation of the second law of thermodynamics.

Therefore, the (time-averaged) total energy of the earth in space is completely independent of whether the earth would be black, completely mirrored or designed differently. It is also independent of whether the earth has no atmosphere or one of pure carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases. The total energy emission of the earth depends only on the solar radiation received from the sun (solar constant, the matter flow from the sun and the heat flow from the glowing interior, which is led very badly upwards, are negligible as energy sources).

Nevertheless, the temperature distribution in the air layers can be completely different. Greenhouse gases lead to a warming of the near-Earth atmosphere, but must cause cooling elsewhere to compensate for the overall radiation balance. This is also what one observes: While the Earth's atmosphere in the last decades is getting warmer and warmer, the high-lying stratosphere cools down at the same time.

The whole consideration is complicated by the fact that most substances are not so-called "gray emitters." But this will only be discussed at the end, and nothing changes in the basic principle of the invention.

So-called "gray emitters" have a temperature-dependent emission spectrum like a "black emitter" of the same temperature, but at each wavelength their intensity in the spectrum is to be multiplied by a constant factor α. According to Kirchhoff's law of radiation, α is also the absorption coefficient of a gray radiator. It indicates what percentage of the incident light is absorbed by it. And it also indicates how many percent of thermal radiation it emits per unit of time, compared to an ideal black emitter of the same temperature. At equilibrium, absorption and emission coefficients are the same! Good absorbers ("black bodies") are also good emitters, bad absorbers (mirrored or white bodies) are also bad emitters. (The law also applies in very good approximation to bodies that are not in thermal equilibrium.)

Explanation:

In order to clarify the idea of the invention and the underlying physics, we will try to approach the real world conditions step by step starting from idealized conditions: Case 1 :

Case 1 is the ideal state of a closed system in which two bodies E and S of different temperature T _E and T _s are to be located within a 100% totally reflecting massless shell at time ti, where T _{s is} greater than T _E.

The surface of the body E is almost totally reflecting (ie, the absorption coefficient α _E is slightly larger than 0). Let body S be an ideal black body (ie, αs is exactly

1 )-

Both bodies emit radiation in accordance with Planck's radiation law. The black body S with higher temperature and higher α much more than the mirrored body E.

For the radiant power emitted by the (black) body S (Stefan-Boltzmann-law): Ms = σ • Ts ⁴ , with σ = 5.67 * 10 ^"8 W / m ² K ⁴ For the radiant power, the the almost mirrored body E yields: M _E = α _E • σ • T _E ⁴ , with σ = 5.67 * 10 ^"8 W / m ² K ⁴

After a (infinitely) long time, a condition is established in the closed system in which the temperature of the black body S and the mirrored body E is the same (T _E , Gieιchgewιcht = T _s , Gieιchgewιcht), and this, although the black body S also emits much more radiation at the same temperature as body E due to the α _s of 1 (and radiates over the totally reflecting shell of the closed system onto the other body E) than the mirrored body E. But the mirrored body E absorbs evenly per unit of time also much less the radiation emanating from the black body S than the other way round! For if this were not so, then one could build in such a closed system, a so-called Perpetuum mobile of the second kind by each time, if due to different radiation intensities a temperature difference between two bodies would have formed by itself, by hitting a bridge from body to body, a heat flow From the warmer to the colder body would be produced, which could be exploited to operate a Carnot heat engine and thus for the eternal recovery of higher energy from heat! In thermodynamic equilibrium (after an "infinitely" long time) T _E = T _s must always be due to the otherwise defeated laws of thermodynamics (this applies to all ideal and all real types of bodies, including the non-gray!), And the radiation powers of the two bodies are related to each other as their absorption coefficients: M _E / Ms = α _E / α _s Case 2:

Case 2 is the case of an unfinished system in which two nonrotating bodies E and S are at a distance from each other. Body E has the shape of a thin spherical shell and its surface is gray (gray radiator) with a (wavelength independent) absorption and emissivity of 0.3 compared to a black body. The material of the body E is poorly heat-conducting. Body E has a radius of 6.37 * 10 ⁶ meters (earth radius).

Let body S be a black body with radius 6.96 * 10 ⁸ meters (sun radius) and the constant temperature T _s = 5800 Kelvin (temperature of the solar surface, photosphere). He is at a distance of 1, 496 * 10 ¹¹ meters from body E (mean distance earth / sun).

Starting from body S, body E achieves a radiant power of 1367 watts per square meter of vertical area (average solar constant, outside the earth's atmosphere). Since the distance from body S to body E is very large compared to the diameters of the two bodies, its rays are practically parallel in the vicinity of body E.

Since the surface of the body E is poorly heat-conducting and also a hollow sphere, so that no heat can flow into the interior, it heats up stronger and faster at the location where the radiation meets perpendicular to the surface than where the radiation is inclined incident.

The various locations on the surface of body E reach equilibrium temperatures after (infinitely) long time, in which absorbed radiant energy and energy radiated as heat radiation are the same. The radiated energy per surface is according to Stefan Boltzmann law proportional T ⁴ : For a black radiator (α = 1) applies:

M black emitter = O * T ⁴ , with O = 5.67 * 10 ^"8 W / mV

For a gray radiator with arbitrary α: M (α) = α • M _black radii = o • o • T ⁴ , with o = 5.67 * 10 ^"8 W / m ² K ⁴ Thus one square meter of area on the sphere E, where the radiation of body S is incident vertically, emits just as much energy as it is absorbed there, then this square meter must have an equilibrium temperature of 394 Kelvin (121 ⁰ C):

T = (M (Q) / (Q * σ)) ¹ ' ⁴ = (M _black ray / θ) ¹ ' ⁴

(There are 1367 watts per square meter of vertical area, of which, due to the absorbance of 0.3, only 0.3 • 1367 watts = 510.1 watts are absorbed and again only 510.1 watts are emitted as heat radiation.) (The equilibrium temperature is not dependent on the absorption and Emissivity α: A permanently mirrored or light-scattering film-coated "earth" without atmosphere would therefore have the same high equilibrium temperature as an absolutely black or any other kind of "earth". The equilibrium temperature is dependent in this case of the incomplete system only on the intensity of the irradiated solar radiation!)

Where the radiation hits at an angle of 30 °, its energy is distributed over twice the area. Thus, one square meter receives only a radiation power of 683.5 watts. Accordingly (according to the above formula) there is radiation incidence and emission then in equilibrium, if this surface only has a temperature of 100 Kelvin (- 173 ⁰ C). And at the edge of the sphere E, where the radiation is incident only grazing (incidence angle 0 °), the surface temperature is 0 Kelvin. The same surface temperature of 0 Kelvin prevails on the side facing away from the body S of the body E, on which no radiation is incident and therefore is in perpetual night. Overall, falls on the body E, which has a cross-sectional area πr ² of 1, 2748 * 10 ¹⁴ m ^2, a radiation power of 1, 7426 * 10 ¹⁷ Watt a. However, the surface which radiates in equilibrium with this energy is not the circular cross-sectional area, but half the spherical surface, ie Vi • 4πr ² , ie 2.5495 * 10 ¹⁴ m ² (and thus twice as large as the cross-sectional area of the sphere). If the half of the spherical surface of E facing body S were to conduct heat well and then have the same temperature everywhere on its surface, equilibrium would be reached if its average temperature were 331 Kelvin (58 ⁰ C) total sphere surface E "infinite" well, so that the ball half facing away from the body S had the same temperature as the S facing ball surface, the average surface temperature would be 279 Kelvin (6 ⁰ C). This is almost equivalent to the measured average surface temperature of the Earth of 288 Kelvin! The same as for an infinitely good thermal conductivity of the surface applies to an "infinitely" fast about all (!) Three spatial axes rotating body E, in the averaged each surface is illuminated equally strong. (Physically, there are such all axes simultaneously rotating, not in the free-floating spheres.)

Case 3:

Case 3 is the case of a "leisurely" (ie earth-like) about a rotation axis through the poles rotating ball-shelled body E, wherein the axis of rotation is perpendicular to the radiation incidence.

At sufficiently high heat capacity of the ball shell, an equilibrium temperature of the surface is not reached before by decrease and Elimination ("night") of the radiation as a result of the rotation, the cooling begins again, showing for each place on the surface a time-dependent temperature curve corresponding to the "latitude" (day / night curve). This is more pronounced at the "equator", where the absolute value of the radiation fluctuates more than near the pole.

Case 4:

Case 4 is an extension of Case 3 incorporating a mobile gravitational fluid (atmosphere, oceans) over the surface of the body E, the fluid being transmissive to all wavelengths, that is, an absorbance and absorption

Have emission coefficients of 0. The fluid then exchanges energy only by contact (collision of its particles) with the warm surface of body E and transports it by convection (slightly by diffusion) on. The fluid leads, via weather-like processes, to a transport of heat from low to high latitudes, and thus tends to bring about an approximation of the surface temperatures between the poles and the equator.

However, the total radiation of energy of the body E, averaged over time, continues to be just as great as the quantity irradiated! (It must be, otherwise the laws of thermodynamics would be violated!) But the radiation emission is distributed differently across the surface, more even, because the temperatures are also more uniform. Although the fluid itself does not emit or absorb radiation, while having a temperature due to contact with the hot surface, it also contains (as it has a heat capacity) an amount of heat removed from the surface, but it does not contribute Radiation at. However, the heat exchange of the surface of E with the fluid leads to a slower change in the

Surface temperature of the body E, as it would be the case without the presence of the fluid.

Case 5:

Case 5 is similar to Case 4, but this time with a fluid that is a highly transparent gray emitter that absorbs a small portion of the incident radiation before it reaches the surface of E and that also absorbs some of the radiated heat radiation before she disappears outwards (into space). Without rotation of the body E and without convection of the fluid and without heat transfer by impacts of fluid particles reached both the fluid, and the surface of E after "infinitely" long time dependent only on the radiation intensity at each location equal equilibrium temperature. When only little incident radiation is absorbed in the fluid (as is the case in air), and most of the radiation is converted to heat only upon absorption on the surface, and when the material of the surface is poorly thermally conductive (little heat dissipation) below), the temperature of the surface after the start of irradiation initially increases faster than that of the fluid.

Case 6:

In case 6, the fluid is a gas which is responsible for the incident radiation (or the predominant

Part of it) is permeable, but not for most of the radiated radiation of larger wavelength (heat radiation) (greenhouse effect by "greenhouse gases").

Heat is thus retained in the near-surface region for longer, which leads to a heating of the near-surface region ("greenhouse effect") compared to the case of a gray-emitting gas, so that the average total radiation again corresponds to the irradiated radiation intensity (main theorems of thermodynamics) however, taking into account heat transfer by convection and diffusion, the temperature in any kind of gas will decrease further outward, if a gravitational potential is taken into account, which removes kinetic energy from an upwardly moving gas particle a rotation of the body E and simultaneous convection and

Heat transfer by collisions of gas particles is indeed the average over a long time total irradiation equal to the averaged, emitted by the body E by an imaginary envelope surface radiation. However, the temperature distribution that results in this overall radiation is much more complicated at the surface and in the fluid: the illuminated surface of E is warmer than the gas above it. The gas is also warmer than surface before reaching a state of equilibrium near the surface, because it absorbs the heat radiation practically completely before it can reach greater heights. Thus, the lower gas layers heat up faster than the upper ones. As a result, after only a finite period of irradiation ("day") in which no equilibrium state can be established, warmer lower air layers (troposphere) and colder upper layers of air (stratosphere) are amplified by splitting the gas particles according to of their molecular mass in the gravitational field, when gray absorbing and selective heat radiation absorbing gas particles have different masses, on the night side the surface cools down and also the strongly heat absorbing gas particles, since they also radiate heat very well again (the cooling starts even at the end of the day, namely, when the energy absorbed by the incident radiation intensity is lower than that of the emitted heat radiation!)

Overall, in the case of non-gray absorbing gas particles that absorb and emit better in the infrared (heat radiation) than in adjacent wavelength ranges, a warming of the near-surface air layers and a cooling of the surface distant air layers, as it is observed on Earth: The greenhouse effect with warming of the atmosphere or troposphere is simultaneously coupled with a cooling of the stratosphere. This must also be so, so that temporally averaged the Kirchhoff radiation law applies, which follows from the main theorems of thermodynamics.

Present version:

In order to cool the atmosphere without at the same time lowering the concentration of the heat radiation absorbing greenhouse gases (eg CO ₂ or methane), the invention proposes a trick (sort of a "macroscopic")

Maxwell's Demon "), but does not violate the laws of thermodynamics! No hidden Perpetuum Mobile of the second kind is used.

The invention provides as a first measure to install on or near the earth's surface a layer of strong lichtstreuendem or, preferably, highly reflective material, so, as it was previously proposed to the albedo of

Increase earth surface. Reflecting surfaces, ie mirrors, are particularly favorable because, when the sun is high, when most of the energy is incident on the surface unit of the earth's surface, they can bring the light out of the atmosphere on the shortest path, whereby less of it is absorbed in the atmosphere. Of the stray light, which is e.g. of white areas (e.g., magnesia, titania), the low angle scattered portion travels a very long distance through layers of air, and therefore, more energy is transferred to the air or impurities from that portion. Although such a static solution according to the prior art also leads to a reduction in the radiation absorbed on the earth's surface and in the atmosphere per unit time of the day, but it also leads to a reduced radiation of heat at night due to the Kirchhoff radiation law!

As an extreme example may serve a completely mirrored surface of the earth: Although it radiates all incident light back into space, but it also holds all existing below the mirrored surface heat back like a thermos bottle. (In the end, and idealized case heats up in this extreme example by the The earth's surface, even from the hot core of the earth, slowly so far until the whole earth is a glowing magma-bubble of uniform temperature!)

Therefore, the invention proposes as an essential additive a timed control of the albedo: For the purpose of cooling during the day (or during a large part of the day when the irradiation is particularly strong), the albedo of the earth's surface increases, so that less solar radiation absorbs from it and heat stored in near-surface (in the surface itself and overlying layers of air) is converted, and at night (or during much of the night) the albedo is reduced so that the absorbed and converted into heat

Radiation energy is emitted as heat radiation amplified. This leads to a total cooling of the soil and the atmosphere.

The method is particularly effective in direct sunshine, less effective in overcast skies: Here already reflect the clouds a large part of the incoming sunlight back into space.

(For the purpose of warming the climate, eg to prevent ice age, the albedo of the earth's surface is reduced during the day so that more radiation is absorbed by it and converted into near-surface heat (in the soil material and overlying layers of air), and at night becomes the albedo so that the absorbed and heat-converted radiant energy is retained, resulting in total warming of the earth's surface and the atmosphere.)

The albedo is controlled by increasing and decreasing the solar radiation reflecting or scattering areas that are at or above the earth's surface (land or water): During the day, the reflecting / scattering surfaces are enlarged, at night their area is reduced. Essential here is the effective for the irradiation and radiation surface. (The mechanical control is preferably powered by solar energy, for example via solar cells.) Self-regulating drives by means of shape memory alloys are also conceivable.)

The albedo of the natural surface of the earth varies from about 0.05 for water, about 0.1 to 0.25 for forest and meadow, 0.3 for desert up to 0.9 for freshly fallen snow. (Due to the high albedo of snow, covering snow-covered areas during the day with a slightly more reflective medium makes less sense.) In addition, snow is not a gray absorber and emitter, but one more selective: it absorbs and radiates well in the infrared, which is why the air at night cools down over snow surfaces in clear skies!)

The change of the effective reflecting or scattering surface above the natural surface of the earth can be achieved by different measures: mirrored or strongly scattering ("white") surfaces which are set up parallel to the earth during the day and folded / rotated at night into an approximately vertical position Especially with mirrored surfaces, a variant is more effective (but also more elaborate) in which the mirrors following the position of the sun are controlled so that they are exactly perpendicular to the incoming light thrown back through the thinnest layer of air back into space or, in cloudy weather, through cloud gaps.There is then the lowest possible absorption or scattering in the atmosphere.The mirrored or scattering surfaces can also folded at night or pushed together into a stack which exposes the underlying earth's surface.

Or the mirrored or light-scattering surface can also be rolled up into a roll at night. In this case, very inexpensive reflective or light scattering equipped films can be used, which indeed have a slightly lower albedo, but because cheap, can cover a much larger area at the same cost. The rolling (machine or by a spring force, such as a roller blind) is preferably done in a protective housing inside. This also allows protection during the day, if the weather (sandstorms or the like) requires it. Also in the case of collapsing or stapling of reflective / light-scattering surfaces protective boxes are advantageous for vertical positions at least surface covers for the reflective / light-scattering surfaces.

The effect to be achieved by the inventive measures is due to the

Complexity of weather events difficult to quantify! The easiest way to estimate it is by comparing the daytime and nighttime temperatures in a desert: when the sky is clear, the difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures for a near-equatorial desert (natural albedo about 0.3) is about 40 degrees Celsius. If one were now able to prevent all solar radiation during the day in such a way cooled down part of the earth's surface by covering by means of reflecting / scattering surfaces, cooled the same Piece of surface the next night again by a, albeit slightly smaller amount off, if one prevents the influx of warm air from the side. In the idealized extreme case of a surface which would be completely isolated downwards and would not absorb energy from the air layers above, and which would be protected from radiation with an ideal fully reflecting mirror during the day, the surface would successively asymptotically cool down to the temperature of the cosmic background radiation. about 3 degrees Kelvin, so -270 ⁰ C!). In the case of large-area and close to each other installed arrangements according to the invention, however, a very clear cooling of the area equipped with the inventive arrangement can be determined even without insulation against a warm air flow from the side when the surface is so large that its diameter is greater than cover the distance covered by warm air flowing in from the side (wind) within the irradiation time (day) of the arrangement. But even for smaller arrangements, of course, results in a measurable cooling, because the incoming air masses are indeed cooled.

Are the arrangements according to the invention distributed over a large area, but isolated, results in a locally effective, but effective for a very large area effective cooling, as desired for a region that again, despite global warming by greenhouse gases, have a climate should, as it was in the centuries before the anthropogenic increase of greenhouse gases by man, and adapted to the nature and agriculture.

To estimate the average temperature of a landscape e.g. by 2 degrees, approximately 2.5% of the surface would have to be completely mirrored (near the equator) during the day and completely antireflective at night. There is no perfect anti-reflection at night (even a collapsed mirror still has an effective

Residual area) and the reflectance of a real and inexpensive and at the same time robust mirror is clearly below 100%, one can assume an efficiency of the arrangement of approximately 0.8 to 0.9, which would then have to be mirrored real about 3% of the surface during the day, to reach about 2 degrees cooling (average temperature deviation averaged over 24 hours). This would be most easily done in cities, for example, by placing such devices on roofs. In cities, the proportion of mirrored surface could be increased significantly, so that in cities in the summer without air conditioning often unbearable temperatures could be significantly reduced. When the plants according to the invention, with open spaces between the mirrors, are used in deserts or desert areas where agriculture is usually impossible due to heat and drought, one achieves, except the desired one Cooling of the overall climate, even the economically useful side effect that agriculture and pastoralism is possible! This makes the climate influence of the invention also economically interesting, especially for many of the previous main oil producing countries! This is particularly the case when the reflective / scattering surfaces are elevated higher above the ground, so that even the area below them can be used. If, for example, one quarter of the earth's surface of a landscape has been covered with reflecting / scattering surfaces during the day, and if these are not concentrated over a large area, but divided into many subunits, or if the reflecting / scattering surfaces have openings as light transmission, the plants will be preserved in the sky Along the sun, the sun does not move all day long, but always shadows and is not damaged by the intense sunlight. The elevated surfaces also reduce the evaporation of water by reducing convection. The agricultural cultivation under the protected against excessive solar radiation surfaces then financed in the long term their roofing! Especially for extensive grazing (eg goats) in deserts or desert marginal areas, such devices should be suitable and, above all, interesting again for the Arab oil producing countries, in whose tradition this is. In addition, solar thermal power plants according to the invention for generating electrical energy, in which many mirrors are controlled to focus light together on a focal point (usually in a tower), at the same time for a Klimaabkühlung use by in the absence of sunlight (mainly at night) the mirror so be provided, the maximum radiation of heat radiation from the earth's surface is possible.

Larger accumulations of controlled mirrors for the purpose of cooling the air can thus also be used simultaneously to generate electrical energy. The mirrors do not have to have the perfection in form and reflectance of such solar thermal power plants, but can be much cheaper. Everything passing the focal point leads directly to the desired cooling of the air. Light that falls on the focal point, however, serves to generate electrical energy. Since the electrical energy, which is generated solar thermal with a design-related efficiency (often around 30%), is passed, also indirectly by a cooling of the area in which such a power plant is, instead. Of course, instead of solar thermal, the (blurred) focused light can also be photovoltaically converted into electrical energy. Although such systems have a lower efficiency, but can also be created in a small size. A particularly easy-to-implement variant of the invention are motor vehicles that are coated with a paint with high reflectivity or scattering power when they are parked in the sun over a lower albedo during the day and in the garage at night. This corresponds to the mirrors that are removed at night. In cities that suffer particularly from overheating in summer, motor vehicles parked on the side of the road or in parking lots occupy a not inconsiderable proportion of the city area during the day. If they disappear from the city in the evening and / or are housed in garages, the underlying dark asphalt is exposed and can radiate its warmth. By contrast, vehicles with a paint that has a lower reflectivity than the substrate on which they are parked (black and dark paint) aggravate the problem of overheating the cities by converting nearly all of the sunlight into heat near the ground Houses are trapped.

The invention gives humanity the necessary time to eliminate the causal problems of climate change without, in the meantime, suffering its devastating consequences. It allows the earth to be kept in an artificially regulated state of equilibrium that is far from what would be expected if the albedo were not regulated in an innovative way. It also makes it possible to regulate this equilibrium state very quickly! Temperature changes take place within minutes if the radiation budget is changed, as anyone who has already witnessed a solar eclipse knows.

However, it is not desirable to set up the albedo control according to the invention as a steady state since it would stabilize a climatic state that is far removed from that which would prevail without the devices according to the invention. A failure of the facilities due to natural disasters or, above all, military intervention would then lead to a rapid climate change to the new state of equilibrium, and with catastrophic consequences. In the long term, therefore, the Earth's state of equilibrium, which is redundant against natural and wartime catastrophes, must be achieved with a reduced concentration of greenhouse gases.

However, the invention can also be used very well for changing the climate of other planets or moons that are to be made habitable for humans. For planets like Mars, which is farther from the sun than the earth and therefore gets less sunlight and therefore colder overall, there is the opposite problem of global warming: the planet should be heated. For this purpose, the albedo of the planet is regulated so that it is reduced during the day and increased at night. Ideally, on the night of Mars, the surface or parts of it are mirrored, whereby the heat absorbed on the Marst day is retained under the mirror layer, as in a thermos bottle. In the simplest case, the Martian surface would be populated with night-mirrored or generally thermally insulated "greenhouses".

Claims

1. A method for influencing the climate and the weather via an artificial change in the albedo of the earth's surface, characterized in that the albedo is changed in a time-controlled substantially in a day / night rhythm.

2. A method for average cooling of the climate and weather according to claim 1, characterized in that the albedo is increased in a mostly cloud-free sky over the whole or the longest time of the day and is reduced during the whole or the longest time of the night.

3. A method for average warming of the climate according to claim 1, characterized in that the albedo is lowered in a mostly cloud-free sky over the whole or the longest time of the day and increased during the whole or the longest time of the night.

4. A method for average cooling of the climate and weather according to at least one of claims 1 and 2, characterized in that the albedo is increased during the day at the times when the absorbed from the radiation intensity of the incident sunlight from the earth's surface lower albedo energy would be greater as the radiation intensity of the heat radiation radiated by it at the same time.

5. The method according to at least one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the time-controlled change of the albedo of the earth's surface by zooming in and out of light-reflecting or scattering surfaces takes place, which are located at or above the earth's surface.

6. The method according to at least one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the time-controlled change of the albedo of the earth's surface by tilting, folding and unfolding, one above the other and sliding apart or rolling up and rolling up lichtreflektierender or - scattering surfaces.

7. Apparatus for carrying out the method according to at least one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that it comprises light-reflecting or light-scattering surfaces which are variable in size and / or orientation to the earth's surface, and at least one time-controlled or radiation intensity-controlled control unit.

8. The device according to claim 7, characterized in that the light-reflecting or light-scattering surfaces are elevated so high above the ground that can be operated in the climate changed with altered radiation and moisture budget agriculture.

9. Device according to at least one of claims 7 and 8, characterized in that it is a plurality of mirrors, of which at least one part is controlled so that the sunlight incident on them is concentrated on a common surface, where it solar thermal or photovoltaic is partially converted into electrical energy, and that the mirrors are placed vertically at night or even at very shallow sun or reduced in area to hinder the radiation of heat of the soil / material under them only a little.