ASES
Artificial Solar Eclipse Shadowing is the author's proposal to reduce incoming sunlight over a specified area for a defined period using an engineered shade. The name does not imply that the proposal reproduces every property or atmospheric effect of a natural eclipse.
Atmosfrustology
An author-coined term used in the book for the proposed study of engineered atmospheric shadowing. It is presented as the author's organizing concept, rather than an established scientific discipline or an independently validated method.
Irradiance
Radiant power arriving per unit area, commonly measured in watts per square metre. A change in irradiance describes an energy input; it does not by itself specify a change in air temperature.
Umbra
The part of a shadow from which the light source is completely obscured. Whether an airborne object produces an umbra at the ground depends on its size, distance and the Sun's apparent size.
Penumbra
A region of partial shadow where only part of the light source is obscured. It creates a transition in illumination rather than a uniformly dark footprint with a perfectly sharp edge.
Surface energy balance
The accounting of energy entering, leaving and being stored at a surface. Radiation, heat exchange, evaporation and storage help determine how that surface responds when incoming sunlight changes.
Boundary layer
The lower atmosphere that responds directly to the surface over relatively short timescales. Its depth and turbulence vary with weather and time of day, influencing how a local surface change affects nearby air.
Atmospheric stability
The tendency of air to resist or support vertical displacement. Stability helps determine whether air mixes readily, but a change in stability alone does not establish that clouds or rainfall will follow.
Cold pool
A localized body of relatively cool, dense air near the surface, often associated with precipitation. A shading-induced cool region is a proposed analogy here; its formation, strength and consequences would require measurement.
Convergence
The coming together of airflows. Low-level convergence can be associated with upward motion, but moisture, stability and other conditions determine whether that motion develops into cloud or precipitation.
Stationkeeping
Maintaining a platform within a specified position range despite disturbances such as wind. Holding altitude, controlling orientation and maintaining a shadow above a ground target are related but distinct requirements.
Counterfactual
An estimate of what would have occurred without the proposed intervention. Reference observations and appropriately evaluated models help build this comparison, which is essential when separating an intervention's effect from ordinary weather changes.
Sources & further reading
- NASA · Eclipse geometry
- Trees et al. (2024) · Eclipse-related cloud response
- National Academies · Reflecting Sunlight (2021)
These sources establish background context. They do not certify the ASES proposal or demonstrate its proposed applications.
ASES remains a research proposal. Atmosfrustology is the author’s proposed framework. No operational climate-control capability is established by this website.