Thermally driven downslope flows were investigated on a low-angle (1.6°) slope on the west side of the floor of Utah’s Salt Lake Valley below the Oquirrh Mountains using data from a line of four tethered balloons running down the topographic gradient and separated by about 1 km. The study focused on the evolution of the temperature and wind structure within and above the slope flow layer and it...

[1] Recent gullies on Mars are suspected to be the result of liquid‐water‐bearing flows. A formation from wet flows has been challenged by studies invoking granular (dry) flows. Our study focuses on the sinuous shapes observed for some of the recent Martian gullies. Sinuous gullies are found in locations and slopes (of 10°–15°) similar to straight gullies, and they are therefore related to the ...

The energetics of the interaction of internal gravity waves with a shelf break is investigated by means of high-resolution two-dimensional numerical simulations, with an emphasis on understanding the partitioning of the internal wave energy over the course of the interaction process and the subsequent dynamics of the onshore propagating internal waves. Some of the energy is dissipated as a resu...

In this study, we extend the mechanistic equilibrium saltation model of Ashida and Michiue (1972) for nearly horizontal sand beds to the case of spatial nonequilibrium sand transport, which allows us to calculate sand transport rates over varying mildly-sloped topographies. Our model incorporates a generalized description of the reduction of the Shields stress within the saltation layer due to ...

[1] Based on recent satellite observations, we hypothesize that there exists a significant air-sea interaction at the shelfbreak front in the East China Sea. An idealized oceanatmosphere coupled model was designed to test this hypothesis and to study the physical processes involved in such an interaction, with emphasis on the oceanic part. A positive feedback between ocean and atmosphere was id...

[1] Airborne radar sounding over the Thwaites Glacier (TG) catchment and its surroundings provides the first comprehensive view of subglacial topography in this dynamic part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) and reveals that TG is underlain by a single, broad basin fed by a dendritic pattern of valleys, while Smith Glacier lies within an extremely deep, narrow trench. Subglacial topography...

[1] One generally recognized limitation of models for rapid growth of Antarctic ice near the Eocene-Oligocene transition is that they are based on present topography, corrected only for removal of modern ice. For West Antarctica, this results in large areas below sea level that would not readily host ice. In the recently active West Antarctic rift system, other factors may have contributed to s...

Numerical models are used to test whether the meridional overturning circulation (MOC) can be reconstructed from boundary densities and the wind stress. In idealized model setups without topography the strength as well as the temporal and spatial variability of the MOC cell can largely be reproduced from boundary densities and the zonal wind stress. With added slopes along the meridional bounda...

We present experimental results on continuously supplied and well developed gravity currents moving from horizontal to concave or constant-slope boundaries. Results show that the gravity current velocity is in continuous spatial development and approaches an equilibrium state velocity only when the slope change is small. Following closely the theory of Turner (1973) we derive a general equation...

A new survey of Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) narrow-angle images of gullies in the 30◦–45◦ S latitude band includes their distribution, morphology, local topographic setting, orientation, elevation, and slopes. These new data show that gully formation is favored over a specific range of conditions: elevation (−5000 to +3000 m), slope (>10◦), and orientation (83.8% on pole-facing slopes). These dat...