Sandesh Kamath

Institute of Geophysics and Meteorology, University of Cologne, Institute of Geophysics and Meteorology, University of Cologne, Institute of Geophysics and Meteorology, University of Cologne
Corresponding Author:skamath@uni-koeln.de
Author ProfileAbstract
Previous studies of wind-blown sand have considered either fully
erodible or non-erodible soils, but the transport over sparsely
sand-covered soils is still poorly understood. The quantitative modeling
of this transport is important for the parameterization of Aeolian
processes under limited sediment supply in climate models. Here we show,
by means of particle-based numerical simulations, that the Aeolian sand
transport rate scales with the wind shear velocity
u∗ as
(u∗-u∗t).[u∗2-u∗t2]
where u∗t is the minimal threshold
u∗ for sustained transport, and the exponent
p is a non-linear function of the mobile sand cover thickness.
Specifically, we find that the scaling of the Aeolian sand transport
rate with u∗ increases from quadratic to cubic as
soil conditions change from fully erodible to rigid. Furthermore, this
scaling is affected by the roughness of the non-erodible ground, thus
providing constraints for modeling supply limited soils.