Friction wind speeds in dust devils: a field study

Balme, Matthew; Metzger, Stephen; Towner, Martin; Ringrose, Tim; Greeley, Ronald and Iversen, James (2003). Friction wind speeds in dust devils: a field study. Geophysical Research Letters, 30(16) p. 1830.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2003GL017493

Abstract

Using in-situ field measurements, we determined surface friction velocities (u_*) and aerodynamic roughness heights (z₀) at the base of 10 dust devils. z₀ values agree closely with previous studies in this region and range from 0.1 to 1.0 cm. The peak u_* coincide with the largest wind speed measurements within the dust devil and range from 0.9 to 2.4 ms⁻¹. Surface friction velocities are sufficient to lift all types of windblown material from dust to pebble sized particles. Peak u_* values for dust devils appear to be a linear function of the peak wind speed measured at ~2 m height within the dust devil. This provides a simple approximation for estimating surface shear stress for dust devils.

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