A new wind erosion sampler for monitoring dust storm events in the Indian Thar desert

Abstract

Removal of soil particles by wind is an active landdegradation process in the Indian Thar Desert. To compute the soil loss due to wind erosion, eroded aeolian masses are mostly collected by samplers, which are available with different designs at desert areas of the world. In the Indian Thar Desert, dust catcher in the design of Bagnold sampler was generally used to collect eroded masses at different heights from the surface, but this had a few drawbacks. Keeping in mind the constraints of the existing sampler, a new wind-erosion sampler was designed, fabricated, tested and installed in the Indian Thar Desert at Jaisalmer. This erosion sampler has the ability to adjust its orifice towards the wind direction and thus is capable of collecting aeolian masses from any direction. With this sampler, eroded aeolian masses were collected and analysed during several dust-storm events and periodic wind-erosion events during June–September 2009. Computation of mass flux (ML–2 T–1) and soil loss from the collected aeolian mass data successfully captured the intensity of dust-storm/wind-erosion events and their variation within a season. Therefore, the new erosion sampler may be used as a tool to monitor and assess dust-storm events in the Indian Thar Desert.