How and to what extent the mineral dust aerosols can affect regional weather systems, global circulation patterns, and climate variability remains an open question. Answering the above question requires comprehensive understanding of the direct, indirect, and semi-direct radiative effects of dust in order to accurately model the energy budget of the atmosphere and surface. The dust-induced changes to the energy budget are manifest in cloud processes and the thermal structure of the atmosphere, and consequently the circulation. The dust-modified circulation, in turn, alters the dust transport by the mean and eddy portions of the flow. Examples of dust-modified circulations include, but are not limited to, the African easterly jet–African easterly wave system, the African monsoon, tropical cyclones, mesoscale convective complexes, and springtime cyclones over Southern Europe, Mongolia, and China.