Aeolian Research 21 (2016) 53–60

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Aeolian Research
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aeolia

Aeolian sediment transport over gobi: Field studies atop the Mogao
Grottoes, China
Lihai Tan, Weimin Zhang ⇑, Jianjun Qu, Junzhan Wang, Zhishan An, Fang Li
Dunhuang Gobi Desert Research Station, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, CAS, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper reports on field studies of aeolian sediment transport over a rough surface-gobi atop the
Received 25 November 2015 Mogao Grottoes, China, in relation to sediment entrainment, saltation mass flux and transport rate pre-
Revised 4 March 2016 diction. Wind speeds were measured with five cup anemometers at different heights and sediment
Accepted 4 March 2016
entrainment and transport measured with horizontal and vertical sediment traps coupled to weighing
sensors, where sediment entrainment and transport were measured synchronously with wind speeds.
Four sediment transport events, with a measurement duration ranging between 2.5 and 11 h, were stud-
Keywords:
ied. The entrainment threshold determined by the horizontal sediment trap varied between 0.28 and
Gobi
Aeolian sediment transport
0.33 m s
1, and the effect of non-erodible roughness elements-gravels increased the entrainment thresh-
Entrainment threshold old approximately by 1.8 times compared to a uniform sand surface. Unlike the non-monotone curve
Saltation shape of sediment flux density profile over gobi measured in wind tunnels, the flux density profile mea-
sured in the field showed an exponential form. Aeolian sediment transport over gobi could be predicted
by an Owen-type saltation model: q ¼ Aq=gu ðu2
u2t Þ, where q is sediment transport rate, A is a soil-
related dimensionless factor, u is the friction velocity, ut is the threshold friction velocity, g is the grav-
itational acceleration, q is the air density. This study indicates that the sediment flux sampling using hor-
izontal and vertical sediment traps coupled to weighing sensors provides a practical method to determine
values for A in this model that can provide good estimates of sediment transport rates in gobi areas.
Ó 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction energy power station has already been built on it. At present, with
the operation of the second Lanzhou–Xinjiang railway as well as
Gobi, a rough surface, usually comprises a single surface layer of the idea of ‘‘new silk road economic belt” being implemented,
coarse clasts in various sizes from gravel to boulder underlain by the speed of the regional economic development in northwest
fine silts and sands with very few coarse particles (Cooke and China even in Central Asia will be further accelerated, while the
Warren, 1973). Gobi is actually a regional name of desert pavement exploitation of the gobi surface will inevitably cause more wind-
in Asia from Mongolian, and it is widely distributed in northwest blown sand problems.
China with an area of 661,000 km2 (State Forestry Aeolian sediment transport is one of the important geomorphic
Administration, 2011). This kind of surface is common in deserts, processes operating in arid regions, which involves strong interac-
known variously as gibber, reg or hamada in other arid regions of tion between the wind and the ground surface (Nickling and
the world (Livingstone and Warren, 1996). Such surfaces are Neuman, 2009). It creates various problems, such as obscuring
almost ubiquitous on Mars (Lancaster et al., 2010). Gobi is usually the sun, impeding traffic, damaging crops and electrical switches,
smooth, stable and with less sand deposition and thus often abrading paint, has a negative impact on human health and can
becomes the main location of engineering construction and trans- cause degradation of valuable and nonrenewable soil resources
portation lines. However, gobi is mainly located in strong wind (Fryrear and Saleh, 1993). Aeolian sediment transport over rough
areas, it is a major source area of dust storms in northern China, surfaces like gobi is different from that over smooth surfaces
and the damage caused by intense sediment flux is serious because of the presence of non-erodible roughness elements such
(Zhang et al., 2014). In recent years, the exploitation of the gobi as gravels or cobbles. These roughness elements can absorb a pro-
surface has increased in China, and a large area of solar and wind portion of wind shear stress, and thus the total wind shear stress
acting on these surfaces can be divided into two parts: the shear
⇑ Corresponding author at: No. 320, Donggangxi Road, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, stress acting on non-erodible roughness elements and that on
China. Tel.: +86 931 4967541; fax: +86 931 8277169. the intervening surfaces between them (Schlichting, 1936). Addi-

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aeolia.2016.03.002
1875-9637/Ó 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
54 L. Tan et al. / Aeolian Research 21 (2016) 53–60

tionally, they exert an impact to the grain–bed interaction. the Mogao Grottoes: easterly, westerly and southerly winds, of
Although significant advances have been made in our understand- which easterly and westerly winds are two main strong winds that
ing of aeolian transport process in the past few decades, the effect transport sediments dominating in April of each year (Liu et al.,
of surface roughness, especially solid roughness elements, on it is 2011; Zhang et al., 2014). Thus, the measured transport events in
still uncertain (Lancaster et al., 2010). Moreover, aeolian sediment this study were concentrated in dust storms generated from east-
transport over these rough surfaces have been mainly investigated erly or westerly winds.
by wind tunnel experiments (e.g., Al-Awadhi and Willetts (1999),
Dong et al. (2004), Gillette and Stockton (1989), Lyles et al. 3. Materials and methods
(1974), McKenna Neuman (1998), Mckenna Neuman and
Nickling (1995) and Tan et al. (2013)), yet relatively few studies Instantaneous sediment transport over gobi was measured by a
have focused on it in a field view (e.g., Gillies and Lancaster newly-developed vertically-integrated passive sediment trap,
(2013) and Gillies et al. (2006)). Wind tunnel results cannot be which can weigh the total collected sediment automatically by a
fully applied to the comparison with those in field situations in weighing sensor connected to a data logger (Fig. 2). This sediment
relation to scale issues (Gillies et al., 2006), and thus field studies trap, with a total height of 0.5 m, width of 150 mm and thickness of
with extensive instrumentation are required. 75 mm, is composed of a bottom rectangular steel box
In this paper, we report on field observation results of aeolian (300  300  200 mm), 16 rectangular aluminum sampling orifices
sediment transport over a rough surface-gobi atop the Mogao and 16 cloth bags for collecting sediments. The bottom 10 orifices
Grottoes, China, during dust storms using vertical and horizontal are 75 mm wide and 24 mm high and the upper 6 orifices are
sediment traps coupled to two weighing sensors. Special attention 75 mm wide and 42 mm high. The back of each orifice was con-
was paid to the effect of surface roughness on sediment entrain- nected to a cloth bag that could be removed after a run to weigh
ment and saltation mass flux and to establishment of the relation- the collected sediments inside. The three bottom cloth bags were
ship between friction velocity and sediment transport rate for the not fixed at the ends of the orifices but in the bottom box in order
gobi surface. This research will provide theoretical reference for to prevent them to overlap each other as collecting sediments and
sand drift control on the gobi surface, and it is also an attempt to thus to increase the sampling efficiency; the other 13 bags were
realistically predict sediment transport rates for complex surface fixed at the ends of the orifices. The weighing sensor has an area
types on Earth. of 300  300 mm and the measurement range is 0–25 kg with a
precision of 1 g (Fig. 2). The acquisition frequency ranges from
2. Study site 0.1 to 3600 s and in this study, it was set as 60 s. This transport
measurement system has been proved to be effective in the
The Mogao Grottoes, a buddhist shrine, are located about 25 km research of aeolian processes through a recent portable wind tun-
southeast of Dunhuang City and are known as the ‘‘world’s art nel study (Zhang et al., 2014).
gallery” or ‘‘the museum on a wall”, which were built on the Wind speed profiles were measured with five-cup anemome-
south-north-oriented steep cliff (1680 m long and 10–45 m high) ters at the respective heights of 0.2, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 m, and
incised by a river. Gobi and mega-dunes are two main landforms wind direction was measured with a wind vane set at a height of
on the top surface of the Mogao Grottoes. Mingsha Mountain, a 2 m, which were all recorded every 60 s by a data logger because
huge and complex mega-dune, is located to the west side atop of the limitation of the anemometer resolution. Wind speed, wind
the grottoes, which is the main sand source threatening the burial direction and sediment transport were measured synchronously
of grottoes. The study site is situated in the central part of the gobi on time.
surface atop the Mogao Grottoes at latitude 40.05°N, longitude The entrainment threshold friction velocity was measured
94.80°E (Fig. 1). The gobi surface, where observations of aeolian using a horizontal sediment trap, which contains a cylindrical steel
sediment transport were performed, mainly consists of gravels in drum with both a diameter and height of 0.4 m coupled to a weigh-
size ranging from 30 to 50 mm and in the coverage of 30–40%, ing sensor using the same data logger with the weighing sensor
which is underlain mainly by fine sand (mean grain size, under the vertical sediment trap. The steel drum was laid under
210 lm). Wind regimes show there are three prevailing winds atop the gobi surface and on the weighing sensor, and it was set flush

Fig. 1. The location of the study site. The aerial view looking south of the study site.
 L. Tan et al. / Aeolian Research 21 (2016) 53–60 55

Fig. 2. Synchronized measurement of sediment entrainment, saltation mass flux and wind speeds on the studied gobi surface.

with the gobi surface. The surrounding gap between the gobi sur- fered significantly from results of wind tunnel experiments that
face and the horizontal sediment trap was covered by a board with the flux density profile over gobi presented a non-monotone curve
a circular hole of the same size to the steel drum’s diameter (Fig. 2). (e.g., Dong et al. (2004) and Qu et al. (2005)). At the same study
site, our recent portable wind tunnel results revealed that in most
cases sand flux density decreased exponentially with height only
4. Results and discussion above 50–80 mm, while they increased with increasing height
below this critical height (Tan et al., 2013), and thus the profile also
4.1. Sediment transport events showed a non-monotone curve shape as the above mentioned
wind tunnel results.
Four sediment transport events were observed during the field
work from 5, April 2013 to 30, April 2013, of which one was gen-
4.3. Threshold wind friction velocity
erated by W winds and three by NNE winds. Table 1 shows the
summarized characteristics of the four measured sediment trans-
In the single transport event of April 15, 2013, when measure-
port events. The measurement duration fell in between 150 and
ment began, wind speed had already been larger than the thresh-
660 min. The average wind speed at a height of 2 m ranged from
old, and thus the quantity of trapped sediments in the horizontal
7.14 to 9.76 m s
1; the respective mean wind friction velocity
sediment trap increased with measurement continuing. As wind
was in the range of 0.36–0.55 m s
1. During the first two transport
decreased below the threshold, the accumulated sediment quan-
events, one sampling run was conducted in the measurement
tity no longer increased, thus reaching a maximum value of
duration and five runs mostly ranging in length from 90 to
3.8 kg (Fig. 4a). In terms of the variation rate of accumulated sed-
160 min for the last two transport events. Mean rates of sediment
iment quantity, the value was zero below the threshold velocity,
transport ranged from 1.36 to 7.62 g m
1 s
1.
and as over the threshold, the variation rate increased apparently,
indicating sediment entrainment occurred. The corresponding
4.2. Sediment flux density profile threshold wind speed at a height of 2 m was 5.7 m s
1 (Fig. 4b).
Threshold wind friction velocity (ut ) was estimated using the wind
In periods of sediment transport events, sediment flux density profile data as sediment initiated according to the method reported
decreased exponentially with increasing height (Fig. 3), which dif- by Bauer et al. (1992) and Wiggs et al. (1996). The calculated ut

Table 1
Characteristic parameters of the measured transport events.

Date Measurement duration Max wind speed at Mean value

(min) 2m
Wind direction Wind speed at 2 m Friction wind speed Sediment transport rate
(°) (m s
1) (m s
1) (g m
1 s
1)
20130408 150 10.7 11.3 8.16 0.43 1.36
20130415 200 11.3 256.4 7.14 0.36 2.00
20130417 660 15.3 26.0 9.76 0.55 7.62
20130428 510 14.2 29.3 9.43 0.55 7.14
56 L. Tan et al. / Aeolian Research 21 (2016) 53–60

The threshold wind speed at a height of 2 m was 6.1 m s
1, and as

wind speed was greater than this value, the variation rate of accu-
mulated sediment quantity increased noticeably (Fig. 4d). The cal-
culated ut value in the transport event of NNE wind was
0.33 m s
1.

4.4. Grain size distribution of sediment flux

Grain size parameters were determined using the geometric

method of moments in the GRADISTAT software (Blott and Pye,
2001). For the two single events of April 15, 2013 and April 17,
2013, sediments transported within the height of 282 mm were
fine in grade (mean grain size, 0.125–0.15 mm), and then they
became very fine in grade above 282 mm (mean grain size, 0.07–
0.12 mm) (Fig. 5). The pattern of particle size changing as a func-
tion of height during these two events showed an increase in mean
grain size within 216 mm and 240 mm, respectively, while the
Fig. 3. Sediment flux density profiles over gobi atop the Mogao Grottoes (runs 1–4 mean grain size decreased conspicuously with height above these
in transport event-20130417 for example). two critical height values.
Sorting values increased with increasing height within the layer
of 0–409 mm, and they ranged from moderately well and moder-
value during the westerly wind in transport event-20130415 was ately sorted to poorly sorted according to the categorization of
0.28 m s
1. Similarly, during the transport event of April 8, 2013, Blott and Pye (2001). However, this trend reversed at a height of
in the commencement of measurement, sediments also had 409 mm above the gobi surface and sorting values began to
already been entrained; during the measurement period, the total decrease with height, but they were also poorly sorted (Fig. 5).
accumulated sediment quantity reached 5.9 kg (Fig. 4c). When The skewness in the trap samples at different heights was dom-
wind speed decreased below the threshold, the total quantity of inated by fine skewed distribution (0–324 mm, 75% of all samples).
trapped sediments no longer varied with continuing measurement. The pattern of skewness changing as a function of height was sim-

Fig. 4. The relationship between wind speed at a height of 2 m and the weight of accumulated sediment in the horizontal sediment trap during transport events of 20130415
(a) and 20130408(c); Variation rates of the accumulated sediment in horizontal sediment trap in unit area and time changing with wind speed at a height of during transport
events of 20130415(b) and 20130408(d).
 L. Tan et al. / Aeolian Research 21 (2016) 53–60 57

Fig. 5. Mean grain size, sorting, skewness and kurtosis changing with height during transport events of 20130415 and 20130417.

ilar to that of the mean grain size. The kurtosis was dominated by For equally strong winds and the same soil, the parameter A is
the leptokurtic form (68.75% of all samples) (Fig. 5). constant (Gillette and Ono, 2008). Thus, the value of A determined
from the transport data of April 17 and wind data of April 28 (u )
can be applied to the prediction of sediment transport rates during
4.5. Prediction of sediment transport rate
the latter transport event. Similarly, data of the measured sedi-
ment transport rates on April 28 was also selected only in the dura-
In prediction of aeolian transport, sediment transport rates are
tion with small wind direction variations. Results reveal that the
generally proportional to the cube of wind speed or wind friction
predicted transport rates qp were consistent with the measured
velocity like those models of Bagnold (1941) and Kawamura
values qm and the R2 value reached 0.856 (Fig. 8). This also indi-
(1951), in which steady winds and dry sand surface are assumed.
cated that during events of sediment transport over gobi, the rela-
In this study, each run of sediment transport measurement last
tionship between transport rate and wind friction velocity could be
over several hours, and thus major wind direction change could
expressed by the Owen-type saltation equation.
contribute to the variations of sediment transport rate. In order
to increase the efficiency of sediment trap impacted by wind direc-
tion variation, data of sediment transport rate in each run of the 5. Discussion
transport event of April 17, 2013 was selected only in duration
when wind direction change was small (Fig. 6). Results showed 5.1. Sediment flux density profile
that aeolian sediment transport over gobi followed a similar
Owen (1964) saltation equation (Fig. 7): As described earlier, the sediment flux density profile over gobi
followed an exponential form, which is apparently different from
q ¼ Aq=gu ðu2
u2t Þ ð1Þ previous wind tunnel results that sediment flux density varied
with height in a non-monotone curve. Zhang et al. (2011) demon-
where q is the average sediment transport rate in 5 min, u is the strated that the curve shape of sediment flux over gobi beds was
corresponding average friction velocity, ut is the threshold friction mainly affected by sediments available for transport and that the
velocity, g is the gravitational acceleration, q is the air density, A is a non-monotone profile mainly occurred in a sediment supply-
soil-related dimensionless parameter (Gillette and Ono, 2008). The limited condition while the monotone one usually in an unlimited
mean transport rate used here represented the shortest time frac- sediment supply condition. According to the field observation
tion that produced strong correlation with the wind record. This results, the parameter A of the studied gobi surface was 0.551,
modified Owen saltation equation was also called the Gillette while the average value was 0.10 for all runs in our portable wind
model (Ono, 2006). tunnel experiments (Tan et al., 2013). Meanwhile, the soil-related
58 L. Tan et al. / Aeolian Research 21 (2016) 53–60

Fig. 6. Wind direction variation in each run during the transport event of April 17th, 2013. Duration in the dotted box was selected to do analysis on the prediction of
sediment transport rates.

Fig. 7. Sediment transport rates q over gobi in a time scale of minute during dust
storm on April 17th, 2013 changing with q=gu ðu2
u2t Þ in Eq. (1). Duration in each Fig. 8. Comparison between the predicted sediment transport rate qp calculated
run was in accordance with that in the dotted box in Fig. 6. using wind speed data of dust storm on April 28th, 2013 and the measured
transport rate qm on April 28th, 2013.

parameter A in Eq. (1) can be used to express the possibility of sand

supply limitation (Gillette and Ono, 2008). Thus, the sediments gravels occupy about 10–30% of the wind tunnel boundary layer
available for transport in the field were clearly more sufficient than in height. Thus, the effect of gravels on the boundary layer adjust-
that in the wind tunnel. In this case, it was understandable that ment is significant in the wind tunnel: the velocity profiles over the
sediment flux density profiles over gobi were in a monotone curve rough surfaces exhibit a substantial reduction in shear near the
shape and those in the portable wind tunnel were non-monotone. surface, which is called the roughness sublayer, whose height
In addition, the difference in the measured curve shape of sed- exceeds the height of roughness elements by a factor of 2 and 5
iment flux density profile over gobi in wind tunnel experiments (McKenna Neuman, 1998; Raupach, 1991). Accordingly, this can
and field observation may attribute to the scale difference of the result in the decrease of sediment flux density in the height range
boundary layer. The boundary layer in the portable wind tunnel of 20–150 mm, which is in general agreement with the height of
is in a scale of 100 mm. The height of gravels on the studied gobi the peak flux exhibiting in previous wind tunnel results. However,
surface approximately ranges from 10 mm to 30 mm, and these in the field the boundary layer can reach several hundred meters,
 L. Tan et al. / Aeolian Research 21 (2016) 53–60 59

Fig. 9. Weight percentages of relative fine grains (<0.08 mm) (a) and coarse grains (0.125–0.315 mm) (b) changing as a function of height.

and thus gravels only occupy approximately one in ten thousand of of gravels has been used to control sand drift disasters threatening
the height of the boundary layer. Consequently, the impact of grav- the grottoes in the study area (Li et al., 2014; Zhang et al., 2014).
els on sediment flux density profile over gobi is not so remarkable
in the field scale as that in the wind tunnel. Furthermore, it should 5.3. Grain size distribution of sediment flux
be noted that the improvement of measurement techniques for the
flux profile such as sediment traps with high-resolution, especially In this study, there is a coarsening trend in the profile of mean
in the near-surface layer, will be of continuing significance as grain size with height within the layer of 0–216 mm or 0–240 mm
reported by Dong et al. (2006), in which wind tunnel results differing in wind directions, and then the infection points occurred
revealed that the peak flux did exist at a height even above a loose and mean grain size began to decrease. This result was completely
sand surface (1–24 mm) based on the measurement of particle different from that the mean grain size of sediment flux over sand
velocity and concentration by particle image velocimetry. surfaces decreased monotonously (Arens et al., 2002), increased
(Van der Wal, 2000) or first decreased then increased with height
5.2. Threshold wind friction velocity (Farrell et al., 2012; Tan et al., 2014; Williams, 1964). Theoretically,
it is generally believed that grain size decreases with height above
The presence of non-erodible gravels increased the threshold the bed surface, while the coarsening trend of mean grain-size
friction velocity for sediment entrainment, which was mainly via with height requires that the coarser grains have higher launch
the local partitioning of shear stress in gravels. As shown earlier, velocities than finer grains. The mechanism for the coarsen trend
the measured ut of the studied gobi surface was 0.28– in the mean grain size as a function of height is still unclear
0.33 m s
1, and the corresponding threshold wind speed at a (Farrell et al., 2012). The clear decrease in mean grain size above
height of 2 m was between 5.7 and 6.1 m s
1. Comparatively, the 240 mm seems to be connected with the increase of coarser grains
calculated ut using the method reported by Bagnold (1941) was (0.125–0.315 mm) in mass weight while the decrease of finer
0.15–0.19 m s
1 for 125–160 lm. Thus, the non-erodible rough- grains (<0.08 mm) in this layer (Fig. 9). Essentially, characteristics
ness elements-gravels on gobi surface increased the threshold fric- of the grain size distribution of sediment flux over gobi may be
tion velocity for sediment entrainment by approximately 1.8 times attributed to the difference in the distribution of lift-off velocities
compared to a uniform sand surface. Lancaster et al. (2010) and and angles between coarse and fine grains plus their complex col-
Raupach et al. (1993) also demonstrated that the non-erodible lision with gravels.
roughness elements increase the threshold velocity for sediment
transport. In low wind friction velocities, gravels act as traps for 5.4. Prediction of sediment transport rate
wind-blown sand, and the increase in threshold friction velocity
for sediment entrainment will eventually attenuate sediment As showed earlier, our field measurement results showed the
transport and thus aeolian transport hazards. The trapping effect saltation mass flux over gobi behaved like an Owen-type saltation
60 L. Tan et al. / Aeolian Research 21 (2016) 53–60

equation, which clearly differs from those models of Bagnold Blott, S.J., Pye, K., 2001. GRADISTAT: a grain size distribution and statistics package
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