Modern warming: researchers present ‘the strongest evidence yet’ that global dust is mysteriously decreasing

Saharan dust storm [image credit: BBC]

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Various possibilities to explain the findings, including changing surface winds, are being investigated. As the paper points out, ‘Decreased dust loading also affects Earth’s planetary albedo.’ Having said reduced dust means more warming, they describe the effect as ‘modest’, perhaps to avert any unwelcome controversy about supposed ‘non-natural’ factors?
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Atmospheric desert dust has long swirled around the globe, but a new UCLA study presents the strongest evidence yet that global dust is mysteriously decreasing.

Because atmospheric dust has a slight overall cooling effect on the climate, the researchers say its decrease may have contributed modestly to recent climate warming, says Phys.org.

The study, which combined satellite observations, ground-based measurements and atmospheric models, found that the amount of dust in Earth’s atmosphere decreased by about 10% from 2003 to 2023.

Most atmospheric dust originates in the Northern Hemisphere, with major desert regions such as the Sahara in North Africa and the deserts of Asia, including the Gobi, contributing much of the global dust burden.[Talkshop comment – NH has much more land than SH].

The causes of the recent decline, however, remain unclear, according to the study, published in Science Advances.

A reversal in dust trends
“This is the strongest evidence to date that Earth’s atmosphere became less dusty in the early 21st century,” said lead author Ashok Gupta, who conducted much of the analysis as a researcher and assistant project scientist in the UCLA Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. He is now a staff scientist at Vanderbilt University.

Study co-author Jasper Kok, a UCLA atmospheric scientist and principal investigator on the project, noted that the recent dust decrease marks a change from much of the 20th century, during which atmospheric dust increased before peaking in the 1980s for reasons scientists are still exploring.
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Gupta is now investigating what is driving the decline in atmospheric dust through ongoing research at Vanderbilt, in collaboration with UCLA.

“We are working to determine how much of the global dust decline can be attributed to changing surface winds and other environmental factors and what those changes could mean for atmospheric dust in a future climate,” Gupta said.

Full article here
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Image: Saharan dust storm [credit: BBC]