Desert dust exerts twice the longwave radiative heating estimated by climate models
Although desert dust is the most abundant atmospheric aerosol by mass, its longwave radiative effects remain unclear, obscuring the impacts of dust on weather and climate. Here, using a data-driven analytical model constrained by observations, we show that scattering and absorption of longwave radiation by dust heats the planet by +0.25 ± 0.06 W m⁻² (90% confidence). This is nearly twice the value simulated by current climate models, which omit longwave scattering and underrepresent super coarse dust (diameter > 10 μm). These omissions bias modeled surface energy fluxes, cloud responses, precipitation, and atmospheric circulation. At the global scale, the sign and magnitude of the net dust direct radiative effect remain uncertain, with additional work needed to constrain shortwave cooling effects. These findings show that improving the representation of dust interactions with longwave radiation can improve weather forecasting and is essential to resolve the role of dust in climate change.
Authors
- Amato T. Evan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2812-3750)
- Yves Balkanski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8241-2858)
- Samuel Albani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9736-5134)
- Jasper F. Kok (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0464-8325)
- Douglas S. Hamilton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8171-5723)
- Adeyemi A. Adebiyi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7091-6872)
- Longlei Li
- Adriana Rocha Lima
- Ashok Gupta
- Natalie M. Mahowald
- Martina Klose
- Carlos Pérez García-Pando (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4456-0697)
- Peter R. Colarco (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3525-1662)
- Jessica Wan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3757-6436)
- Ramiro Checa-Garcia
- Akinori Ito (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4937-2927)
- Vincenzo Obiso
- Yue Huang
- Ron L. Miller
Institutions
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE)
- Goddard Institute for Space Studies (US)
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ES)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
- Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (NL)
- Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JP)
- North Carolina State University (US)
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography (US)
- University of California, Merced (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (FR)
- Vanderbilt University (US)
- Cornell University (US)
- Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR)
- Barcelona Supercomputing Center (ES)
- University of California San Diego (US)
- University of Chicago (US)
- Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (FR)
- University of Milano-Bicocca (IT)
- University of Maryland, Baltimore County (US)
- Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (ES)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2026-04-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70952-9
- Primary Topic
- Atmospheric aerosols and clouds
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
- Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe AISBL
- AXA Research Fund
- Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad
- Barcelona Supercomputing Center
- Office of Science
- HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme
- European Regional Development Fund
- Agencia Estatal de Investigación