Ulan Bators ‘Ice Shield’ to Influence Summer Climate

As a result of global warming Mongolia’scapital Ulan Bator suffers from unbearable hot summers caused by the so calledthe urban heat island effect. Mongolia’sgovernment is about to launch a bold project to influence the summer climate intheir capital as theguardian reports today. In giant blocks of ice geoengineers intend to“store” sill freezing winter temperatures that will aid to cool and water thecity as it slowly melts during the hot summer months.  It will be tested if the city gets cooled through the ice insummer and how much energy-intensive air conditioning can be reduced.

Specifically, the idea of the project is toartificially create “naleds”.Naleds are thick slabs of ice that naturally can be found in far northern areaswhen rivers push through cracs in the surface to seep outwards during the dayand then add an extra layer of ice during the night. Through this process theselayered ice slabs continue to grow in thickness as long as there is enoughwater pressure to penetrate the surface. Due to their thickness of more than 7metres they melt much later than regular ice.

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The climate manipulating project tries torecreate this process by drilling bore hole into the ice that has started toform on the Tuul river. The water will be discharged across the surface addinga new layer of ice on top. The drilling will then be repeated at regularintervals throughout the winter.

Robin Grayson, aMongolian-based geologist argues that "if you know how to manipulate them,naled ice shields can repair permafrost and building cool parks incities."

While naleds have served industrialapplications before, as military bridges in North Korea or as platforms fordrilling in Russia, the Ulan Bator climate experiment is unprecedented.

This giant project lines up with other hugeclimate manipulation projects like the raincontrol operation for the Olympics by the BeijingWeather Modification Office.