Abstract
A new experiment can create small scale barchan dunes under water :
some sand is put on a tray
moving periodically and asymmetrically in a water tank, and barchans
rapidly form. We measure
basic morphological and dynamical properties of these dunes and compare
them to field data. This
favorable results demonstrate experimentally the relevance of the so
called īsaturation lengthī for
the control of the dunes physics.