Short-term Unsteadiness in Aeolian Sediment Transport Across Beaches

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SBR-9511529 Bernard O. Bauer, Principal Investigator (PI) Douglas J. Sherman, Co-PI University of Southern California, Los Angeles Short-Term Unsteadiness in Aeolian Sediment Transport Across Beaches Sediment transport is a fundamental agent of change in geomorphological systems. Our conceptual understanding of sediment transport processes is robust, but practical implementation of this knowledge is constrained by our inability to translate theory into generally-applicable predictive models. Problems occur as a result of technical and logistical hurdles. This research will enhance our understanding of the potential role of unsteadiness in sediment transport processes and the appropriate means of parameterizing models by focusing on an aeolian beach environment. The results should be indicative of transport processes in other geomorphic environments. Unsteadiness at temporal scales of seconds to tens of minutes will be investigated systematically to determine whether wind speed fluctuations are critical to modeling short-term sediment flux across beaches--existing model parameterizations of transport are based on steady-state assumptions. Continuously-measuring, fast-response sand traps employing electronic load cells will be deployed in the field to provide contemporaneous time series of both wind speed and sediment flux. The field data will provide insight into the character of transport rate variability across beaches and serve as a foundation for exploring improvements in predictive equations.