Black carbon landing on snow may be accelerating the melting of Himalayan glaciers more than atmospheric soot or even greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), according to a study.

Desert dust perturbs climate by directly and indirectly interacting with incoming solar and outgoing long wave radiation, thereby changing precipitation and temperature, in addition to modifying ocean and land biogeochemistry.

We present and discuss a new dataset of gridded emissions covering the historical period (1850–2000) in decadal increments at a horizontal resolution of 0.5° in latitude and longitude.

Particulate solar absorption is a critical factor in determining the value and even sign of the direct radiative forcing of aerosols. The heating to the atmosphere and cooling to the Earth's surface caused by this absorption are hypothesized to have significant climate impacts.

Boreal spring climate is uniquely susceptible to solar warming mechanisms because it has expansive snow cover and receives relatively strong insolation. Carbonaceous particles can influence snow coverage by warming the atmosphere, reducing surface-incident solar energy (dimming), and reducing snow reflectance after deposition (darkening).

There is a large uncertainty in the relative roles of human land use, climate change and carbon dioxide fertilization in changing desert dust source strength over the past 100 years, and the overall sign of human impacts on dust is not known.

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