Coevolving aerodynamic and impact ripples on Earth

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Yizhaq, Hezi, Tholen, Katharina, Saban, Lior, Swet, Nitzan, Lester, Conner, Silvestro, Simone, Rasmussen, Keld R., Merrison, Jonathan P., Iversen, Jens J., Franzese, Gabriele, Kroy, Klaus, Pähtz, Thomas, Durán, Orencio, Katra, Itzhak
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Yizhaq, Hezi
Tholen, Katharina
Saban, Lior
Swet, Nitzan
Lester, Conner
Silvestro, Simone
Rasmussen, Keld R.
Merrison, Jonathan P.
Iversen, Jens J.
Franzese, Gabriele
Kroy, Klaus
Pähtz, Thomas
Durán, Orencio
Katra, Itzhak
author_facet Yizhaq, Hezi
Tholen, Katharina
Saban, Lior
Swet, Nitzan
Lester, Conner
Silvestro, Simone
Rasmussen, Keld R.
Merrison, Jonathan P.
Iversen, Jens J.
Franzese, Gabriele
Kroy, Klaus
Pähtz, Thomas
Durán, Orencio
Katra, Itzhak
contents Windblown sand creates multiscale bedforms on Earth, Mars, and other planetary bodies. According to conventional wisdom, decameter-scale dunes and decimeter-scale ripples emerge via distinct mechanisms on Earth: a hydrodynamic instability related to a phase shift between the turbulent flow and the topography, and a granular instability related to a synchronization of hopping grains with the topography. Here, we report the reproducible creation of coevolving centimeter and decimeter-scale ripples on fine-grained monodisperse sand beds in ambient-air and low-pressure wind-tunnels, revealing two adjacent mesoscale growth instabilities. Their morphological traits and our quantitative grain-scale numerical simulations authenticate the smaller structures as impact ripples but point at a hydrodynamic origin for the larger ones. This suggests that the aeolian transport layer would have to partially respond to the topography on a scale comparable to the average hop length, hence faster than previously thought, but consistent with the phase lag of the inferred aeolian sand flux relative to the wind. Hydrodynamic modelling supports the existence of hydrodynamic aerodynamic ripples on Earth, connecting them mechanistically to megaripples and to the debated Martian ripples. We thereby propose a unified framework for mesoscale granular bedforms found across the Solar System.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_10643
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Coevolving aerodynamic and impact ripples on Earth
Yizhaq, Hezi
Tholen, Katharina
Saban, Lior
Swet, Nitzan
Lester, Conner
Silvestro, Simone
Rasmussen, Keld R.
Merrison, Jonathan P.
Iversen, Jens J.
Franzese, Gabriele
Kroy, Klaus
Pähtz, Thomas
Durán, Orencio
Katra, Itzhak
Geophysics
Soft Condensed Matter
Fluid Dynamics
Windblown sand creates multiscale bedforms on Earth, Mars, and other planetary bodies. According to conventional wisdom, decameter-scale dunes and decimeter-scale ripples emerge via distinct mechanisms on Earth: a hydrodynamic instability related to a phase shift between the turbulent flow and the topography, and a granular instability related to a synchronization of hopping grains with the topography. Here, we report the reproducible creation of coevolving centimeter and decimeter-scale ripples on fine-grained monodisperse sand beds in ambient-air and low-pressure wind-tunnels, revealing two adjacent mesoscale growth instabilities. Their morphological traits and our quantitative grain-scale numerical simulations authenticate the smaller structures as impact ripples but point at a hydrodynamic origin for the larger ones. This suggests that the aeolian transport layer would have to partially respond to the topography on a scale comparable to the average hop length, hence faster than previously thought, but consistent with the phase lag of the inferred aeolian sand flux relative to the wind. Hydrodynamic modelling supports the existence of hydrodynamic aerodynamic ripples on Earth, connecting them mechanistically to megaripples and to the debated Martian ripples. We thereby propose a unified framework for mesoscale granular bedforms found across the Solar System.
title Coevolving aerodynamic and impact ripples on Earth
topic Geophysics
Soft Condensed Matter
Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.10643