Experimental Observation of Boundary Layer and Movement of Topographically Varying Desert Dunes with Unmanned Systems

Desert dunes offer unique geophysical interactions, and these eolian dominant interactions occur over a significant portion of earth surfaces. There are multiple factors that determine the direction and shape of these dunes, which include sand availability and primary wind modes throughout the year. Trying to replicate these interactions in common water or wind tunnels can be difficult as the size of the dune creates a high Reynolds Number that was proven difficult to replicate with sized down models. This project endeavored to apply unmanned aerial systems (UAS) capabilities to track the sub boundary layer propagation by attaching an anemometer and flying vertical profiles while comparing the data with grounded anemometers. In addition, this research pursued tracking the movement of desert dunes using images capture by unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to create a structure-from-motion to assist when shape modeling. This volatile landscape makes an ideal setup for tracking imagery combined with its effect of atmospheric data.