Air quality impacts of stratospheric aerosol injections are likely small and mainly driven by changes in climate, not aerosol settling

Wang, Cindy; Visioni, Daniele; Chua, Glen; Bednarz, Ewa M.

doi:10.5194/acp-26-1339-2026

Articles | Volume 26, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-1339-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-1339-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 26, issue 2

Research article

|

27 Jan 2026

Research article |

| 27 Jan 2026

Air quality impacts of stratospheric aerosol injections are likely small and mainly driven by changes in climate, not aerosol settling

Cindy Wang, Daniele Visioni, Glen Chua, and Ewa M. Bednarz

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-1339-2026-supplement

Data sets

SSP2-4.5 Simulations with CESM2 (WACCM6) Jadwiga Richter and Daniele Visioni https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6473954

ARISE-SAI-1.5 Simulations with CESM2(WACCM6) Jadwiga Richter and Daniele Visioni https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6473775

Model code and software

Air quality impacts of stratospheric aerosol injections are mainly driven by climate, not deposition Cindy Wang https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15696232

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Short summary

Stratospheric aerosol injection is a proposed method to slow global warming by adding tiny reflective particles high up in the atmosphere to cool the planet. We study how this proposed method might affect air quality and human health using climate models. We find that the health impacts would likely be small and are mainly driven by changes in climate, not by the particles themselves.