Abstract：Dust emission process is the primary component in the dust cycle. Quantitative and complete description of the dust emission process is the basis for accurate simulation and prediction of dust aerosols. Dust emission process is highly non-steady and non-uniform and has intermittent feature, also known as intermittent dust emission. How to accurately describe the intermittent dust emission process is an important scientific issue in current dust research. Based on the research results of dust emission processes from field experiment, wind tunnel experiment and numerical simulation during the past two decades, the development of observation techniques for intermittent dust emission process based on high-frequency measurements and its occurrence conditions and identification methods using relevant turbulence thresholds and intermittent factors are reviewed. The impact mechanism of boundary-layer turbulence structure and their thermal and dynamic-thermal effects during intermittent dust emission process are summarized. The development of dust emission parameterization schemes under different dust-emission mechanisms, particularly the methods to establish intermittent dust emission schemes via introducing gust variations, intermittent factors, or probability density distributions of turbulence parameters are discussed. Finally, some suggestions are put forward for the problems existing in current dust emission research and future potential research directions.