Using satellite data and ground measurements, researchers detected a steady increase in these microscopic airborne particles since 1850.

By scattering sunlight back into space and disrupting high-altitude clouds that can act like a blanket trapping warmer air below, these dust particles have an overall cooling effect, essentially masking the true extent of the current extra heat energy vibrating around our atmosphere.

Atmospheric physicist Jasper Kok from the University of California, Los Angeles, explains that this amount of dust would have decreased warming by about 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit.

"We show desert dust has increased, and most likely slightly counteracted greenhouse warming, which is missing from current climate models," says Kok.

"The increased dust hasn't caused a whole lot of cooling – the climate models are still close – but our findings imply that greenhouse gases alone could cause even more climate warming than models currently predict."

"This is of tremendous importance because better predictions can inform better decisions of how to mitigate or adapt to climate change."