THE MODEL OF MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF AEOLIAN RIDGE LANDSCAPES FORMED BY BARCHAN CHAINS

T. V. Gonikov^1,*and А. S. Victorov^2,**

¹ Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie gory 1, Moscow, 119234 Russia
² Sergeev Institute of Environmental Geoscience, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ulanskii per., 13, bld.2, Moscow, 101000 Russia
*E-mail: gonikov.timur@yandex.ru
**E-mail: vic_as@mail.ru

The paper presents a mathematical model of ridge aeolian landscapes formed by barchans chains. The research allows us to substantiate two structural laws for the morphological patterns of these landscapes: the geometric distribution (with a single shift) of the number of dunes forming a chain and the lognormal distribution of the lengths of aeolian ridges formed by dune chains. Empirical testing of the model involved ridge aeolian landscapes in the basin of Qinghai (Ch’inghai) Lake, in the basin of Lake Chad and aeolian landscapes on the eastern coast of Brazil. The results are supposed to be applied for the purpose of remote monitoring and predicting the specific of aeolian processes.

Key words: aeolian processes, barchans, mathematical modeling, landscape pattern, mathematical morphology of landscape, arid ecology

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