Dust emissions are primary component of the atmospheric dust cycle. A comprehensive and quantitative description of the dust emission process is the basis for accurate simulation and prediction of dust aerosols. Dust emission processes are highly unsteady, non-uniform, and has intermittent features, also known as intermittent dust emissions. Accurately characterizing intermittent dust emissions remains a key scientific challenge in current dust research. This study reviews research from the past two decades, spanning field experiments, wind tunnel tests, and numerical simulations, on intermittent dust emissions. It covers the development of observation techniques using high-frequency measurements, occurrence conditions, and identification methods based on turbulence thresholds and intermittent factors. The influence of boundary-layer turbulence structures and their thermodynamic and dynamic effects on intermittent dust emissions is also summarized. Advancements in parameterization schemes for different dust emission mechanisms are discussed, with a focus on methods incorporating gust variations, intermittent factors, or probability distributions of turbulence parameters to model intermittent dust emissions. Finally, suggestions are provided to address existing challenges in dust emission research and outline future research directions. In the future, more filed experiments of atmospheric boundary layer and dust emission processes need to conduct using high-frequency measurement techniques for dust saltation and emission. In the relevant studies of identification methods and formation mechanisms of intermittent dust emission, both of the dynamic and thermodynamic impact of turbulence should be considered. More attention should be paid on the intermittent dust emission processes caused by direct turbulence aerodynamic entrainment, typically without sand saltation activity. The intermittent dust emission parameterization schemes should be developed and evaluated using field experiment data, in order to improve the simulation and forecasting of dust aerosols and dust events.