Global desert dust in the atmosphere is mysteriously decreasing. That could be adding to global warming

Amazing stuff!

I believe this is not the first report making the link between cleaner atmosphere and warmer temperatures. This one is not about human generated air pollution, but natural pollution by desert dust.

Remember global warming is a hoax and climate change is a religion!

"Key takeaways

• UCLA research shows that desert dust in the atmosphere has dropped about 10% since 2003.
• The dust has a slight cooling effect on the planet, and recent decreases may have played some role in hastening global warming.
• Scientists are continuing to investigate why atmospheric desert dust is declining.

...

a new UCLA study presents the strongest evidence yet that global dust is mysteriously decreasing. ...

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 of the 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. ..."

From the abstract:

"Mineral dust affects Earth’s energy budget, clouds, and biochemistry, yet the evolution of the global dust cycle in recent decades remains shrouded in uncertainty.

Here we reconstruct the global dust cycle during the early 21st century by integrating a suite of global dust aerosol optical depth (DAOD) products from satellite-borne lidar, infrared sounders, and multispectral imagers; three aerosol reanalyses; and a compilation of dust-dominated AERONET sites into a large-ensemble inverse modeling framework.

We show that North Africa has remained the dominant global dust source, yet it has experienced a decline in DAOD of −10 ± 8% between 2003 and 2023. A comparable reduction is observed across Asia (−10 ± 12%), together driving a global decrease of −10 ± 8%.

Similar declines in dust loading, emissions, and deposition indicate a coherent reduction of the global dust cycle. Individual satellite products converge on overall similar trends, providing the strongest evidence to date that the planet has become less dusty in the early 21st century. This decline in atmospheric dust has exerted a positive effective radiative forcing of +0.02 ± 0.05 watts per square meter over 2003–2023, implying that declining atmospheric dust might have modestly contributed to the rapid warming of the past two decades."

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Earth’s atmosphere is getting less dusty. That could be adding to global warming

A global decline in atmospheric dust during the 21st century (open access)

Fig. 1. Global DAOD climatology and trends from satellite, reanalysis, and AERONET data.