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Mineral dust is a contributor of the global aerosol budget, with arid regions as principal sources. IPCC (2007) gives a best estimate of the direct mineral dust radiative forcing (RF), with the highest uncertainty in the radiative balance estimations being associated to mineral dust for both its direct and indirect effects. In addition, differentiating the anthropogenic influenced dust has important implications for health effects. Thus, several factors related to the estimation of mineral dust optical properties keep unresolved, including the anthropogenic contribution. The differentiation in the origin of the mineral dust burden is then urgent on the climate debate and a better understanding on the airborne dust properties is needed.