This picture exhibits two varieties of sand dunes on Mars. The small dots are referred to as barchan dunes, and from their form we will inform that they’re upwind. The downwind dunes are lengthy and linear. These two varieties of dune every present the wind route in several methods: the barchans have a steep slope and crescent-shaped “horns” that time downwind, whereas the linear dunes are stretched out alongside the first wind route. Linear dunes, nonetheless, usually point out a wind regime with not less than two totally different prevailing winds, which stretch out the sand alongside their common route. In a number of locations on this picture, yow will discover barchan dunes turning into linear dunes as they’re stretched out, however they each appear into point out the identical wind route.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

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