Physics and Modelling of Wind Erosion
ATMOSPHERIC AND OCEANOGRAPHIC SCIENCES LIBRARY VOLUME 37
Editors Lawrence A. Mysak, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanographic Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Canada Kevin Hamilton, International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, U.S.A. Editorial Advisory Board L. Bengtsson A. Berger J.R. Garratt G. Geernaert J. Hansen M. Hantel H. Kelder T.N. Krishnamurti P. Lemke P. Malanotte-Rizzoli D. Randall J.-L. Redelsperger A. Robock S.H. Schneider G.E. Swaters J.C. Wyngaard
Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie, Hamburg, Germany Université Catholique, Louvain, Belgium CSIRO, Aspendale, Victoria, Australia DMU-FOLU, Roskilde, Denmark MIT, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A. Universität Wien, Austria KNMI (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute), De Bilt, The Netherlands The Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, U.S.A. Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany MIT, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A. Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, U.S.A. METEO-FRANCE, Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques, Toulouse, France Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, U.S.A. Stanford University, CA, U.S.A. University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, U.S.A.
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Physics and Modelling of Wind Erosion by
Yaping Shao University of Cologne, Germany
ABC
Dr. Yaping Shao University of Cologne Germany
[email protected]
ISBN 978-1-4020-8894-0
e-ISBN 978-1-4020-8895-7
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Preface 1
Wind erosion occurs in many arid, semiarid and agricultural areas of the world. It is an environmental process influenced by geological and climatic variations as well as human activities. In general, wind erosion leads to land degradation in agricultural areas and has a negative impact on air quality. Dust emission generated by wind erosion is the largest source of aerosols which directly or indirectly influence the atmospheric radiation balance and hence global climatic variations. Strong wind-erosion events, such as severe dust storms, may threaten human lives and cause substantial economic damage. The physics of wind erosion is complex, as it involves atmospheric, soil and land-surface processes. The research on wind erosion is multidisciplinary, covering meteorology, fluid dynamics, soil physics, colloidal science, surface soil hydrology, ecology, etc. Several excellent books have already been written about the topic, for instance, by Bagnold (1941, The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes), Greeley and Iversen (1985, Wind as a Geological Process on Earth, Mars, Venus and Titan), Pye (1987, Aeolian Dust and Dust Deposits), Pye and Tsoar (1990, Aeolian Sand and Sand Dunes). However, considerable progress has been made in wind-erosion research in recent years and there is a need to systematically document this progress in a new book. There are three other reasons which motivated me to write this book. Firstly, in most existing books, there is a general lack of rigor in the description of win