Carlos A. Alvarez

Our results suggest that on Mars, values of the aerodynamic roughness length may reach up to 1 cm—up to two orders of magnitude larger than typically assumed. #NASA Ames, @stanforddoerr.bsky.social, @marslogander.bsky.social

Aerodynamic roughness of rippled beds under active saltation at Earth-to-Mars atmospheric pressures - Nature Communications Low-pressure wind tunnel experiments suggest that the aerodynamic roughness length on Mars, over rippled beds and under active saltation, may be dominated by form drag, reaching values up to two order...

Excited to share our latest publication in @natcomms.nature.com, where we analyze the aerodynamic roughness length over equilibrated rippled sand beds with active saltation under atmospheric pressures intermediate between those of Earth and Mars.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Ripples formed in low-pressure wind tunnels suggest Mars’s large windblown ripples are not impact ripples - Nature Communications Low-pressure wind tunnel experiments suggest that large sand ripples on Mars are drag ripples, not impact ripples. Windblown drag ripples constitute an untapped record of atmospheric evolution under t...

Postdoc Carlos Alvarez shows that Mars’s large #aeolian #ripples are not impact ripples through low-pressure #wind tunnel experiments at #NASA Ames. Very excited about this one!
@stanforddoerr.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...