Dust storms are considered natural hazards that affect the earth’s atmosphere and ecosystems over both short- (few hours to a few days) and long-time intervals. Due to the significant impact of dust aerosols on climate, air quality, and entire biota, different instrumentation and techniques have been used to focus on the investigation of such events. In order to improve the scientific understanding of dust aerosols, their source regions, and their effect on global climate, a worldwide effort has been undertaken in the last three decades to produce a global dust-aerosol climatology by combining satellite observations and measurements from ground-based monitoring networks. The studies included in this special issue mainly concern ground-based and satellite observations as well as model simulations of dust plumes over climatically sensitive areas influenced by dust storms, such as the tropical Atlantic, Mediterranean, Alps, northwestern India, and east Asia.

N. E. Touréet al. analyzed the intercontinental transport