Jasper Kok in earth.com: Atmospheric dust has been masking greenhouse warming

A new study led by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has found that global atmospheric dust (microscopic airborne particles from desert dust storms) has a small, yet significant cooling effect on our planet, which has hidden the full amount of warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. According to the experts, the amount of desert dust has grown by 55 percent since the mid-19^th century, thus increasing its cooling effect.

“We show desert dust has increased, and most likely slightly counteracted greenhouse warming, which is missing from current climate models,” said study lead author Jasper Kok, an atmospheric physicist at UCLA. “The increased dust hasn’t caused a whole lot of cooling – the climate models are still close – but our findings imply that greenhouses gases alone could cause even more climate warming than models currently predict.”