The full amount of warming caused by greenhouse gases has been hidden by microscopic airborne particles thrown into the air during desert dust storms, a new study suggests.
Furthermore, research by University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) found that the amount of desert dust has grown roughly 55 per cent since the mid-1800s, which increased the dust’s cooling effect.
Some effects of atmospheric dust warm the planet, but because other effects of dust actually counteract warming – for example, by scattering sunlight back into space and dissipating high clouds that warm the planet – the study calculated that dust’s overall effect is a cooling one.
The researchers warn that if dust levels decline or stop growing, warming could ramp up.
“We show desert dust has increased and most likely slightly counteracted greenhouse warming, which is missing from current climate models,” said UCLA atmospheric physicist Jasper Kok, the study’s lead author.
“The increased...