Yesterday (11-10) proved to be an exciting day for studying aeolian processes. Cycling over the dune front in the morning in Egmond aan Zee provided us with the first ‘birdseye’ view of the beach. First thing noticed: sand blowing over the beach! A powerful Southwestern wind (+-10m/s) arrived at the coast and made for a beautiful view of the beach with moving and fading patches of blowing sand. This steady wind proved to remain present and get the sand moving the rest of the day! For us this ment we could deploy all the equipment for aeolian measurements and start collecting data.
After determining the optimal location for the first Saldec logger we ‘swiftly’ deployed the apparatus which we had practised several times now. The tide was falling largest part of the day, therefore the second Saldec station was deployed seaward of the first station in order to study the threshold of transport. Soil moisture measurements where taken every half hour in a transect perpendicular to the wind direction in front of the Saldec logger to study the evolution of moisture content.
Jasper Donker arrived at the beach with the third Saldec logger, which was repaired just in time for this beautiful day to count the intensity of the blowing sand. We where happy to have some expertise and help in the field during these exciting conditions. The third station was located at the dunefront to study the variation in transport from beach to dune.
Also multiple sand catchers where located on top of the dune, halfway upon the dune front, at the foredune and on the beach. The orientation of the different flags of the sand catchers caught our attention. Because of the flags we could see the wind change its direction over the dune.
The limited rain made this day particularly good to do measurements with the sand catchers. Only one of the installed bottles clogged up but all the other ones did their job and caught yet to be determined amounts of sand.
Lowtide was at 5:00pm and at around 3:00pm the sandbars emerged from the water. It was interesting to see how wind would take sand from the fairly dry bars but not from higher up on the intertidal beach which fell dry earlier than the sandbars. During more quite conditions we aim to do measurements to capture the drying of the bars and identify the area that is potentially available for aeolian transport.
Most natural controlling factors lined up perfectly today for the sand to be transported. Little amounts of rain, low water levels during most of the day and a steady wind with the right angle caused large amounts of aeolian sand transport! For now… we start with checking up on the vasts amounts of collected data which seemed to be promising and remain stand by to do our everyday measurements.
Have a nice weekend!
After determining the optimal location for the first Saldec logger we ‘swiftly’ deployed the apparatus which we had practised several times now. The tide was falling largest part of the day, therefore the second Saldec station was deployed seaward of the first station in order to study the threshold of transport. Soil moisture measurements where taken every half hour in a transect perpendicular to the wind direction in front of the Saldec logger to study the evolution of moisture content.
Jasper Donker arrived at the beach with the third Saldec logger, which was repaired just in time for this beautiful day to count the intensity of the blowing sand. We where happy to have some expertise and help in the field during these exciting conditions. The third station was located at the dunefront to study the variation in transport from beach to dune.
Also multiple sand catchers where located on top of the dune, halfway upon the dune front, at the foredune and on the beach. The orientation of the different flags of the sand catchers caught our attention. Because of the flags we could see the wind change its direction over the dune.
The limited rain made this day particularly good to do measurements with the sand catchers. Only one of the installed bottles clogged up but all the other ones did their job and caught yet to be determined amounts of sand.
Lowtide was at 5:00pm and at around 3:00pm the sandbars emerged from the water. It was interesting to see how wind would take sand from the fairly dry bars but not from higher up on the intertidal beach which fell dry earlier than the sandbars. During more quite conditions we aim to do measurements to capture the drying of the bars and identify the area that is potentially available for aeolian transport.
Most natural controlling factors lined up perfectly today for the sand to be transported. Little amounts of rain, low water levels during most of the day and a steady wind with the right angle caused large amounts of aeolian sand transport! For now… we start with checking up on the vasts amounts of collected data which seemed to be promising and remain stand by to do our everyday measurements.
Have a nice weekend!