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BBC: How dust affects atmospheric temperature has puzzled researchers. Does it reflect incoming solar radiation and thus cool Earth’s surface, or does it trap heat and thus cause Earth’s surface to warm? And will a warmer Earth be even dustier? To better understand dust’s complex role in Earth’s climate, researchers from the UK and South Africa have been studying the largest source of dust in the Southern Hemisphere, the Etosha pan. They hope to fill in a critical missing piece of Earth's climate jigsaw puzzle by gathering data on dust quantities, heights, and thickness; measuring local wind speeds; and looking at what weather conditions increase or decrease the amount of dust.
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Studying the role of atmospheric dust in global warming Free
10 December 2015