Barchans of Minqin: Sediment transport

Spatial changes in the rates of sand transport are a fundamental control of dune morphology. A detailed field measurement of sand flux along the brink of a barchan was performed to explore the spanwise property of sand flux on the barchan surface. Setting the arc length of the brink at the tip of the longer horn to zero, it was found that the value of sand flux increases with the arc length of the brink at first and then decreases at both low and high wind speeds. The maximum occurs at the crest. Our result suggests that the spanwise distribution of sand flux cannot be neglected in the study of transverse dunes.