THE government is examining a British-designed system for spraying seawater into the air to make clouds whiter. The idea is that they would reflect more radiation away from the Earth and slow the worldwide rise in temperatures.

The technique, invented by Stephen Salter, emeritus professor of engineering design at Edinburgh University, would involve using a fleet of small boats to produce the fine spray.

As the water evaporated, tiny particles of salt would be carried into low-lying stratocumulus clouds by rising air currents. The salt would whiten the clouds, making them more reflective, and also create more water droplets, further reducing the amount of sun rays penetrating the atmosphere.

“The government is aware of Professor Salter’s ideas and we are currently considering them,” said a spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

“It is important when dealing with potential solutions for climate change to think out of the box.”

The research by Salter, who invented one of the first devices to turn wavepower into electricity, will be published in the next edition of the journal Atmospheric Research. He claims that by increasing the reflectivity of one third of clouds around the world by 4.5% he could prevent enough heat reaching the Earth’s surface to negate all the forecast effects of global climate change.

Salter, who has collaborated with John Latham of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, believes a pilot project for his system could be operational within four years.

Initially 500 unmanned radio-controlled boats, costing £1m each, would be deployed off the west coast of Africa and west of Peru, where the lumpy stratocumulus clouds are most prevalent.

The 70ft-tall vessels, placed 25 miles apart, would be tracked by satellite. The forward movement of the boats, driven by wind-powered rotors, would turn underwater turbines that would create a field of static electricity. Water sucked into the rotors would hit the electrostatic field, creating the fine mist of seawater.

Around the world 40,000 tons of sea spray are whipped up into the atmosphere each second. Salter believes an additional half a ton per second would have to be generated to brighten clouds by 4.5%.

Salter believes that companies could be persuaded to pay £10 per ton to the spray project to counterract corresponding amounts of their carbon emissions entering the atmosphere and creating heat.

Salter this weekend denied his project was fanciful, saying: “Can you think of anything that did not appear complex before it started? The car must have seemed complex to those used to the horse and cart.”

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• UK regional accents thrive against the odds
• ‘Scarecrow’ wind farms put rare birds to flight
• What an anti-climax: G-spot is a myth