Atmospheric dust plays a dual role in Earth’s climate: it reflects some sunlight back into space while also absorbing and retaining the planet’s heat like an insulating blanket. But while dust likely cools the planet overall, that’s not the whole story. New UCLA research shows that the heat-trapping effect of airborne desert dust in the atmosphere is about twice as big as previously believed.

Although researchers emphasized that current climate models are performing well, the new findings will further increase precision. Updating climate and weather models to account for the larger heat-trapping power of dust could improve both short-term weather forecasts and long-term climate projections, said lead researcher and UCLA atmospheric scientist Jasper Kok.

Using data from satellites, aircraft measurements and new climate simulations, combined with meteorological data related to temperature, UCLA-led researchers developed a global estimate, shared in a study published in Nature Communications.