Articles | Volume 25, issue 20
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-13199-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-13199-2025
Research article
 | 
21 Oct 2025
Research article |  | 21 Oct 2025

Dust radiative forcing in CMIP6 Earth System models: insights from the AerChemMIP piClim-2xdust experiment

Ove W. Haugvaldstad, Dirk Olivié, Trude Storelvmo, and Michael Schulz

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Preprint under review for ESSD
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Cited articles

Adebiyi, A., Kok, J. F., Murray, B. J., Ryder, C. L., Stuut, J.-B. W., Kahn, R. A., Knippertz, P., Formenti, P., Mahowald, N. M., Pérez García-Pando, C., Klose, M., Ansmann, A., Samset, B. H., Ito, A., Balkanski, Y., Di Biagio, C., Romanias, M. N., Huang, Y., and Meng, J.: A review of coarse mineral dust in the Earth system, Aeolian Research, 60, 100849, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aeolia.2022.100849, 2023a. a, b, c
Adebiyi, A. A. and Kok, J. F.: Climate models miss most of the coarse dust in the atmosphere, Science Advances, 6, eaaz9507, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz9507, 2020. a, b
Adebiyi, A. A., Huang, Y., Samset, B. H., and Kok, J. F.: Observations suggest that North African dust absorbs less solar radiation than models estimate, Communications Earth & Environment, 4, 1–13, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00825-2, 2023b. a
Balkanski, Y., Schulz, M., Claquin, T., and Guibert, S.: Reevaluation of Mineral aerosol radiative forcings suggests a better agreement with satellite and AERONET data, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 7, 81–95, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-7-81-2007, 2007. a, b
Bauer, S. E., Mishchenko, M. I., Lacis, A. A., Zhang, S., Perlwitz, J., and Metzger, S. M.: Do sulfate and nitrate coatings on mineral dust have important effects on radiative properties and climate modeling?, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 112, https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JD006977, 2007. a, b
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Our study examines what would happen if desert dust in the atmosphere doubled, motivated by dust sedimentation records showing a large increase in dust levels since industrialization began. Using climate model simulations, we assess how more dust affects Earth's energy balance and rainfall. We found that models disagree on whether more dust overall cools or warms the planet. Additionally, more dust tends to reduce rainfall because it absorbs radiation and encourages the formation of ice clouds.
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