Difference in the wind speeds required for initiation versus continuation of sand transport on Mars: Implications for dunes and dust storms

Abstract

Much of the surface of Mars is covered by dunes, ripples, and other features formed by the blowing of sand by wind, known as saltation. In addition, saltation loads the atmosphere with dust aerosols, which dominate the Martian climate. We show here that saltation can be maintained on Mars by wind speeds an order of magnitude less than required to initiate it. We further show that the resulting hysteresis effect causes saltation to occur for much lower wind speeds than previously thought. These findings have important implications for the formation of dust storms, sand dunes, and ripples on Mars.

4 pages, 3 figures, published in Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (6)

• A Continuum Saltation Model for Sand Dunes
• A scaling law for aeolian dunes on Mars, Venus, Earth, and for subaqueous ripples
• Electrostatics in wind-blown sand
• Dune formation on the present Mars
• Electrification of wind-blown sand on Mars and its implications for atmospheric chemistry
• On the shape of barchan dunes

Cited by in corpus (24)

• The physics of wind-blown sand and dust
• Numerical simulation of turbulent sediment transport, from bed load to saltation
• The physics of sediment transport initiation, cessation, and entrainment across aeolian and fluvial environments
• Does the size distribution of mineral dust aerosols depend on the wind speed at emission?
• Rocket dust storms and detached dust layers in the Martian atmosphere
• A unified model of ripples and dunes in water and planetary environments
• Flux saturation length of sediment transport
• The apparent roughness of a sand surface blown by wind from an analytical model of saltation
• Transverse instability of dunes
• The Cessation Threshold of Nonsuspended Sediment Transport Across Aeolian and Fluvial Environments
• A lower-than-expected saltation threshold at Martian pressure and below
• Saltation under Martian Gravity and its Influence on the Global Dust Distribution
• Analytical model for flux saturation in sediment transport
• The Critical Role of the Boundary Layer Thickness for the Initiation of Aeolian Sediment Transport
• Fluid forces or impacts: What governs the entrainment of soil particles in sediment transport mediated by a Newtonian fluid?
• Thermal creep assisted dust lifting on Mars: Wind tunnel experiments for the entrainment threshold velocity
• Wind erosion on Mars and other small terrestrial planets
• Crater mound formation by wind erosion on Mars
• Analytical mesoscale modeling of aeolian sand transport
• Body-rock or lift-off in flow
• Scaling laws for planetary sediment transport from DEM-RANS numerical simulations
• Thermal Creep on Mars: Visualizing a Soil Layer under Tension
• Measuring Mars Atmospheric Winds From Orbit
• Wind-invariant saltation heights imply linear scaling of aeolian saltation flux with shear stress