Dust particles play an important role in several atmospheric processes with significant contribution to climate change considerations. Dust affects the radiation budget of the atmosphere by both direct and indirect aerosol effects. The direct effects refer to the reflection and absorption of solar and terrestrial radiation by the dust particles while the indirect effects refer to their role in cloud formation. Atmospheric studies regarding the dust emission and transport started in the late 60’s and corresponding research continues until now, with increasing complexity on the specific particle properties and atmospheric processes. In this work we describe the main factors that affect several physical processes of dust in nature based on observational and modeling studies, including a retrospective of dust science efforts in the previous decades.