Climate change infrared absorption

In short, the combination of absorption and scattering of light by mineral dusts, combined with an increase in these due to anthropogenic activities, has the potential to contribute to climate change. However, many uncertainties need to be removed before these effects can be confidently quantified. For example, the infrared absorption depends on the composition of the dust and as seen in Fig. 14.35, this can be quite variable from location to location and even as a function of time from one source. This one effect alone can lead to a large variability in the predicted effects on radiative forcing (Sokolik et al., 1998). 

---