Recalibrating aeolian sand transport models.

Abstract

A quality-controlled data set comprising measurements of aeolian sand transport rates obtained at three disparate fieldsites is used to evaluate six commonly employed transport rate models (those of Bagnold, Kawamura, Zingg, Owen, Hsu, and Lettauand Lettau) and to recalibrate the empirical constants in those models. Shear velocity estimates were obtained using the von Kármánconstant and an apparent von Kármán parameter. Models were recalibrated using non-linear regression and non-linear regressionwith least-squares lines forced through axes origins. Recalibration using the apparent von Kármán parameter and forced regressionreduced the empirical constants for all models. The disparity between the predictions from the different models is reduced fromabout an order of magnitude to about a quarter of an order of magnitude. The recalibrated Lettau and Lettau model provided thegreatest statistical agreement between observed and predicted transport rates, with a coefficient of determination of 0 77.