Giant aeolian dune size determined by the average depth of the atmospheric boundary layer

Bruno Andreotti, Antoine Fourrière, Fouzia Ould-Kaddour, Brad Murray and Philippe Claudin ()
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Bruno Andreotti: Laboratoire de Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes (PMMH UMR 7636 CNRS-ESPCI-P6-P7), 10 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France
Antoine Fourrière: Laboratoire de Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes (PMMH UMR 7636 CNRS-ESPCI-P6-P7), 10 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France
Fouzia Ould-Kaddour: Laboratoire de Physique Théorique, Université Abou Bekr Belkaid
Brad Murray: Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Center for Nonlinear and Complex Systems, Duke University, Box 90230, Durham, North Carolina 27708-0230, USA
Philippe Claudin: Laboratoire de Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes (PMMH UMR 7636 CNRS-ESPCI-P6-P7), 10 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France

Nature, 2009, vol. 457, issue 7233, 1120-1123

Abstract: Shifting sands Sand dunes, common on Earth and other planetary bodies, still hold some mysteries. The ways that small dunes form — those with lengths of tens of metres — are well understood. But much less clear is how giant (kilometre-scale) dunes come into existence, what dictates their shapes and what limits their size. Andreotti et al. use a combination of field measurements and aerodynamic calculations to show that the growth of giant dunes is limited by the confinement of the sand transport flow over the average depth of the atmospheric boundary layer. The new findings can explain the mean spacing of wind-generated giant dunes up to 3.5 km in length.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1038/nature07787

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