The Portable In-situ Wind ERosion Lab (PI-SWERL) is a relatively recent instrument that is used to study windblown dust emissions from natural and artificial soil surfaces. Initial experiments with the PI-SWERL indicate that the traditional models whereby dust emissions increase monotonically with shear stress applied to the surface are overly simplistic and ignore issues of sediment supply, crusts, and layering. Data collected during field studies indicate that the behaviors of many soil surfaces stray from their idealized representations in dust emissions models. This project will undertake a set of preliminary measurements and related data analysis on a series of constructed soil test plots. The first goal is to relate data collected with the PI-SWERL to specific physical aspects of the soil surface. A second goal is to characterize the response of a new type of saltation sensor under these controlled conditions.
Wind erosion and transport is a major problem in many parts of the world, especially those with semi-arid or seasonally arid climate. The effects of wind on soil has very significant implications for the proper management of agricultural land. This approach for extracting information on the physical aspects of a soil surface from PI-SWERL data would enable a new technique for mechanistically understanding eolian dust emissions, and the resultant information could significantly improve the fidelity of model representation of wind erosion of soils in arid regions.
