How sand dunes are created revealed

A study has revealed how prevailing winds create sand dunes on Earth.

The data collected from the four-year experiment done by Clement Narteau of the Global Institute for Physics in Paris, France, and his colleagues will now enable astronomers to determine weather patterns on other planets by monitoring wind-formed sand dunes, New Scientist reported.

The scientists, who worked in the remote Tengger desert of Inner Mongolia, used a bulldozer to flatten 160,000 square metres of sand dunes in 2008 and over the next three-and-a-half years, they watched the dunes rebuild by closely tracking the winds.

The research has found that the newly-created dunes pointed in directions dictated by two prevailing winds, which prevailed in the desert at different times of the year and the final orientation of each dune was a compromise between the two wind directions, their durations and their relative strengths.