P.O.H.E. Polar Ocean Heat Extraction: A Research Framework for Polar Ocean Cooling with Optional Energy Recovery and Radiative Heat Rejection

Polar Ocean Heat Extraction (P.O.H.E.) is proposed as a research framework to assess whether controlled heat extraction from ocean waters supplying polar regions could reduce the thermal exposure of ice, recover part of that energy as useful work, and deliver a measurable climate benefit. The central hypothesis is to evaluate specific locations and operating periods rather than impose a uniform cooling target of 1 °C per year across polar oceans.The analysis distinguishes three outcomes: local water cooling, net electricity generation, and changes in the planetary energy budget. None automatically demonstrates the others. Power generation requires an effective cold sink; rejecting heat to the atmosphere does not immediately remove it from Earth; and climate benefit depends on the difference relative to a no-intervention baseline.Order-of-magnitude calculations illustrate the scale challenge. Cooling an idealised 100 m layer across 14 million km² by 1 K requires approximately 5.72 × 10²¹ J, equivalent to 181 TW of thermal power over one year. Rejecting 1 TW at an assumed net flux of 50 W/m² requires 20,000 km² of emitting surface. These are illustrative calculations, not prototype results.This note contributes a research framework with explicit advancement and rejection criteria. Energy recovery, radiative cooling, and polar interventions have published precedents; no claim of fundamental novelty or demonstrated feasibility is made. The proposed starting point is thermodynamic modelling, comparison with direct cooling, and small controlled experiments.This concept note has not been peer reviewed and contains no original climate simulations or experimental results.