Analysis of large aeolian (wind-blown) bedforms using the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation data

Dry land areas cover large parts of the land masses of Earth. Of these a large portion is mantled by aeolian (wind-blown) deposits and subjected to aeolian process, i.e., the transport of sand or dust by wind. One of the most prominent morphologies created by wind-driven deposits are dunes and in their larger form draas or mega dunes. These mega dunes tend to be widely spaced; very large; often forming a base on which smaller dunes form, producing a compound dune pattern. In February 2000 the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, onboard the space shuttle Endeavour flew an interferometric radar system whose objective was to create a DEM of nearly all Earth land masses. In this paper DEM data from the C-band 90 m data set and the X-band 30 m data set were used to map and characterize the height and spacing of the large sand seas (Ergs) on Earth. Only the larger forms of dunes could be mapped reliably. The dune spacing and heights extracted from the SRTM DEMs tended to be in overall agreement with those reported in the literature. In a comparison between the X-band and the C-band data it was found that the X-band data are more sensitive to the smaller scale undulations on the compound dunes and better revealed the full height of the dunes.