Related papers: Direct validation of dune instability theory
Early-stage bedforms develop into mature dunes through complex interactions between wind, sand transport and surface topography. Depending on varying environmental and wind conditions, the mechanism driving dune formation and, ultimately,…
In landscape-scale experiments at the edge of the Gobi desert, we show that various dune types develop simultaneously under natural wind conditions. Using 4 years of high-resolution topographic data, we demonstrate that, depending on sand…
In zones of loose sand, wind-blown sand dunes emerge due the linear instability of a flat sedimentary bed. This instability has been studied in experiments and numerical models but rarely in the field, due to the large time and length…
We review the main processes that drive the morphodynamics of dunes, i.e. their growth in height, migration and elongation, and emphasise the contribution of experiments to the understanding of these mechanisms. The main control parameters…
We model formation and evolution of transverse dune fields. In the model, only the cross section of the dune is simulated. The only physical variable of relevance is the dune height, from which the dune width and velocity are determined, as…
Dune fields are commonly associated with periodic patterns that are among the most recognizable landscapes on Earth and other planetary bodies. However, in zones of limited sediment supply, where periodic dunes elongate and align in the…
Wind-blown sand dunes are both a consequence and a driver of climate dynamics; they arise under persistently dry and windy conditions, and are sometimes a source for airborne dust. Dune fields experience extreme daily changes in…
Emergence and growth of sand dunes results from the dynamic interaction between topography, wind flow and sediment transport. While feedbacks between these variables are well studied at the scale of a single and relatively small dune, the…
Dunes are bedforms found on sandy terrains shaped by fluid flow on Earth, Mars, and other celestial bodies. Despite their prevalence, understanding dune dynamics at the grain scale is challenging due to the vast number of grains involved.…
Wind topographically forced by hills and sand dunes accelerates on the upwind (stoss) slopes and reduces on the downwind (lee) slopes. This secondary wind regime, however, possesses a subtle effect, reported here for the first time from…
Most terrestrial sand seas form at `horse' latitudes, where the wind direction exhibits seasonal variation. Here, we extend the two-dimensional linear stability analysis of a flat sand bed associated with a unidirectional wind to the…
We present in this paper a simplification of the dune model proposed by Sauermann et al. which keeps the basic mechanisms but allows analytical and parametric studies. Two kinds of purely propagative two dimensional solutions are exhibited:…
The wavelength at which a dune pattern emerges from a flat sand bed is controlled by the sediment transport saturation length, which is the length needed for the sand flux to adapt to a change of wind strength. The influence of the wind…
Granular media are frequently found in nature and in industry and their transport by a fluid flow is of great importance to human activities. One case of particular interest is the transport of sand in open-channel and river flows. In many…
It has been observed that the direction in which a sand dune extends its crest line depends on seasonal variation of wind direction; when the variation is small, the crest line develops more or less perpendicularly to the mean wind…
It is widely accepted that both ripples and dunes form in rivers by primary linear instability, the wavelength of the former scaling on the grain size, that of the latter being controled by the water depth. We revisit here this problem,…
The linear stability analysis of the equations governing the evolution of a flat sand bed submitted to a turbulent shear flow predicts that the wavelength $\lambda$ at which the bed destabilises to form dunes should scale with the drag…
Crescent shaped barchan dunes are highly mobile dunes that are usually presented as a prototypical model of sand dunes. Although they have been theoretically shown to be unstable when considered separately, it is well known that they form…
The dune skeleton model is a reduced model to describe the formation process and dynamics of characteristic types of dunes emerging under unidirectional steady wind. Using this model, we study the dependency of the morphodynamics of…
Desert surfaces are typically non uniform, with individual sand dunes generally surrounded by gravel or non-erodible beds. Similarly, beaches vary in composition and moisture that enhances cohesion between the grains. These bed…