Saltation transport on Mars

Abstract

We present the first calculation of saltation transport and dune formation on Mars and compare it to real dunes. We find that the rate at which grains are entrained into saltation on Mars is one order of magnitude higher than on Earth. With this fundamental novel ingredient, we reproduce the size and different shapes of Mars dunes, and give an estimate for the wind velocity on Mars.

4 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (5)

• A Continuum Saltation Model for Sand Dunes
• Minimal model for aeolian sand dunes
• Minimal size of a barchan dune
• Aeolian transport layer
• On the shape of barchan dunes

Cited by in corpus (13)

• The physics of wind-blown sand and dust
• Dune formation on the present Mars
• The apparent roughness of a sand surface blown by wind from an analytical model of saltation
• Jump at the onset of saltation
• Transverse instability of dunes
• A lower-than-expected saltation threshold at Martian pressure and below
• Model for a dune field with exposed water table
• Analytical model for flux saturation in sediment transport
• Discrete Element Method simulations of the saturation of aeolian sand transport
• Laboratory Impact Splash Experiments to Simulate Asteroid Surfaces
• Lifting of Tribocharged Grains by Martian Winds
• Particle dynamics of a cartoon dune
• Stabilization of straight longitudinal dune under bimodal wind with large directional variation