... During dust transportation, many young plants are lost to the sand blasting nature of the process at ground level, resulting in a loss of productivity. However, major dust storms have most of their impact within the atmosphere. The most noticeable effect is the reduction of visibility. This is of course dependent on the severity of the dust event. It could range from a slight haze to a major dust cloud. In the worst cases, visibility can be reduced to only a few metres. This loss of visibility can be a major hazard to aircraft and in some cases to motorists. Dust particles are thought to exert a radiative influence on climate directly through reflection and absorption of solar radiation and indirectly through modifying the optical properties and longevity of clouds. Depending on their properties and in what part of the atmosphere they are found, dust particles can reflect sunlight back into space and cause cooling in two ways. Directly, they reflect sunlight back into space, thus reducing the amount of energy reaching the surface. Indirectly, they act as condensation nuclei, resulting in cloud formation. Cloud formation raises the albedo of the globe, causing more solar radiation to be reflected back into space.