Estimates of the Schmidt Number for vertical flux distributions of wind-blown sand

Abstract

ABSTRACT Farrell, E.J. and Sherman, D.J., 2013. Estimates of the Schmidt Number for vertical flux distributions of wind-blown sand. In: Conley, D.C., Masselink, G., Russell, P.E. and O'Hare, T.J. (eds.) From studies of suspended sediments in water or dust in air it is recognized that the Rouse profile represents a theoretically sound, first approximation of characteristic sediment concentration gradients. Rouse (1938) combined the influence of grain size and shear velocity changes into a universal equation. The Rouse number relates sediment size (in the form of settling velocity, w0) to shear velocity, the von Karman constant (0.4) and the Schmidt Number, typically assumed to be equal to 1.0 but with much larger values reported. The shape of the Rouse concentration profile is controlled by the Rouse number exponent. We applied the Rouse profile model to 14 vertical flux profiles of wind-blown sand measured during a field experiment in Jericoacoara, Brazil in 2008. These data were supplemented with 96 vert...