Deserts may seem lifeless and inert, but they are very much alive. Sand dunes, in particular, grow and move – and according to a decadeslong research project, they also breathe humid air.
Deserts may seem lifeless and inert, but they are very much alive. Sand dunes, in particular, grow and move – and according to a decadeslong research project, they also breathe humid air.
The findings show for the first time how water vapor penetrates powders and grains, and could have wide-ranging applications far beyond the desert – in pharmaceutical research, agriculture and food processing, as well as planetary exploration.
The team’s paper, “Water Vapor Transport Across an Arid Sand Surface - Non-Linear Thermal Coupling, Wind-Driven Pore Advection, Subsurface Waves, and Exchange with the Atmospheric Boundary Layer,” published March 21 in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Earth Surface.
The project, led by lead author Michel Louge, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the College of Engineering, has spanned not only a great deal of time but also a variety of terrain. It began nearly 40 years ago, when Louge was studying the behavior of fluids, gasses and solid particles.
Read more at: Cornell University
