In a paper just published in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Earth Surface, and led by graduate student Nate Bristow at the University of Notre Dame, Jim Best and colleagues Ken Christensen and Gianluca Blois, detail the fluid dynamics of colliding barchan dunes. These experiments, conducted in a unique flume facility that matches the refractive index of the working fluid and bed models and developed under an NSF MRI grant, show how dune proximity and lateral offset influence the controlling fluid flow. These patterns of flow are critical in determining the interactions and evolution of such dunes – under air and water – and on both Earth and other planets.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2017JF004553

Image