AEOLIAN ACTIVITY OF DIFFERENT SCALE BEDFORMS: EVOLUTIONS AND INTERACTIONS THROUGH MULTI-TEMPORAL IMAGES ON EARTH AND MARS

Remote sensing analysis of the multi-temporal high resolution images (HiRISE) from Mars is a key tool for demonstrating present-day Martian aeolian activity and surface changes. Bedform migrations such as large dark dunes (LDDs) and ripples, their slip face advancement, dust devil tracks (DDTs), albedo pattern changes and dust storms have been previously studied in different locations on Mars (e.g. Cardinale et al., 2016). All these are evidence of pervasive aeolian activities all over this planet.

However, terrestrial analogs of Martian aeolian bedforms have not been studied by the same method, and different scales of multiple bedform superposition and interaction has never been analysed simultaneously for both planets. Comparing the forms of these aeolian activities with terrestrial analogues at a comparable time scale increases information about the atmospheric conditions and aeolian processes on Mars because these bedforms play a critical role as a geological indicator of Martian surface evolution and history.

In this study, we present results of the remote sensing analysis of multi-temporal images from a pristine location in the Lut desert of Iran, which contains diverse aeolian landforms with different length scales and superposition relationships, such as sand dunes (the same as Martian LDDs), TAR-like features, sand sheets and DDTs. Many of these same landforms’ spatial coexistence are also abundant on Mars, which can be compared to Earth. To our best knowledge, the Lut desert area is unique on Earth for the variety of its aeolian bedforms in connection with each other.

We studied the modification of these landforms through eight years by using high resolution satellite images on Earth. Furthermore, we compared the interaction, advancement and evolution of the same bedforms at different scales through time with the same juxtaposition and on the same bed topographies on Mars. In addition to different bedform scales, we also studied DDTs’ pattern changes through time and made a comparison with Martian DDTs. Results show incredible evidence of bedforms’ contemporary activities, similarities and differences in their influence on each other, as well as the controlling factor of underlying topography on their evolution throughout the time of observation on both planets.