https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-026-07611-x
Regular Article
Effect of elevation-dependent near-surface thin wind fields on Martian barchan dune: hydrodynamic characteristics revealed through numerical modeling
School of Chemical Engineering, Northwest University, 710127, Xi’an, China
a
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Received:
19
November
2025
Accepted:
24
March
2026
Published online:
6
April
2026
Abstract
The widespread distribution of active aeolian barchan dunes across modern Mars, despite its thin atmosphere, motivates our systematic research objective to accurately reveal within the framework of planetary aeolian physics: the regulatory mechanisms by which elevation-dependent Martian atmospheric conditions correlate with near-surface wind intensity to collectively influence dune hydrodynamic characteristics. In this study, using the elevation-specific atmospheric environment at the Zhurong rover’s landing site as our baseline, we obtained atmospheric data for elevations spanning − 6 to 2 km through the Mars Climate Database (MCD). These data were input into our established computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to conduct numerical predictions of surface flow behavior on barchan dunes at respective elevations, induced by near-surface in situ wind speeds ranging from 5 to 25 m/s. It is found that the leeward side flow characteristics of Martian barchan dunes differ from those previously predicted for Venus and Titan. Although near-surface winds of 5–25 m/s on Mars are capable of generating recirculation vortices and the spatial scale of these vortices, quantified by the flow reattachment length, increases with wind speed, they remain systematically shorter than those on Venus and Titan. This is primarily attributed to differences in the flow regime characterized by the Reynolds number based on the scaled dune height under the low-density, high-kinematic-viscosity conditions of Mars. Furthermore, although the spatial scale of the recirculation vortex increases with decreasing elevation across all wind speeds, the extent of this increase becomes less influenced by elevation-dependent density enhancement as wind speed increases. These findings contribute to elucidating the distinctions in wind-induced dune flow between thin atmosphere Mars and previously investigated dense atmosphere planets, thereby providing preliminary hydrodynamic data for exploring Martian dune aeolian erosion.
Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-026-07611-x.
Copyright comment Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2026
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
