SALTATION AND SUSPENSION OF SEDIMENT BY TURBULENT WIND

PARTICLES IN THE AIR ABSORB AND SCATTER ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES, CAUSING TRANSMISSION LOSS AND IMAGE OBSCURATION. THE PATTERNS OF SCATTERING AND EXTINCTION ARE FUNCTIONS OF WAVELENGTH AND PARTICLE SIZE. IN ORDER TO CALCULATE THE TRANSMITTANCE AND EXTINCTION COEFFICIENTS OF MULTI-SPECTRAL, FROM VISIBLE TO MILLIMETER WAVELENGTH, TARGET ACQUISITION SYSTEMS, THE SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF PARTICLES ALONG THE TARGET PATH NEEDS TO BE PROVIDED. MOST SEDIMENT TRANSPORT EQUATIONS, HOWEVER, ARE CONCERNED WITH THE TOTAL MASS FLUX OVER THE WHOLE SALTATION LAYER, OR AT MOST GIVE THE VERTICAL CONCENTRATION PROFILES OF SUSPENSION, WITHOUT RESOLUTION OF PARTICLE SIZE. IN PHASE I, WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP A NUMERICAL PROCEDURE TO OBTAIN THE SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF SEDIMENT SALTATION AND SUSPENSION. THE COMPUTED RESULTS WILL BE PRESENTED IN SPHERICAL COORDINATES THROUGH MATHEMATICAL TRANSFORMATION.