Dynamic Changes of Typical Blowouts Based on High-Resolution Data: A Case Study in Hulunbuir Sandy Land, China

Figure 1

Location of the study area of the Hulunbuir Sandy Land: three different types of blowouts are regarded as the research objects; they are saucer blowout (a), trough blowout (b), and compound blowout (c), respectively, whose size increases sequentially. Meteorological data are obtained from Hailar Meteorological Station. The data includes daily maximum wind velocity and wind direction from 2002 to 2012. Fryberger’s Drift Potential Index [12] is used to calculate the total drift potential (DP), resultant drift potential (RDP), and resultant drift direction (RDD); the formula is DP = . Since is required to be the average wind velocity, while data in this paper is the maximum wind velocity, conversion is performed by regarding the empirical value of 8.8 studied by Fang et al. [13] as the parameter, that is, . The prevailing wind direction in the study area is northwesterly; the RDP value is less than 200 VU, indicating of a low wind energy environment [12]. The basemap is QuickBird satellite image of the Hulunbuir Sandy Land in 2002.