A review of aeolian transport processes in cold environments

Aeolian environments in Canada experience seasonally cold temperatures. The portion of the annual wind transport occurring between late autumn and early spring usually is perceived as trivial because low temperature transport is difficult to measure reliably, particularly in remote northern areas, and because warm climate based semi-empirical wind erosion models are intractable for temperatures below 0°C. Very little is known about the processes contributing to the phenomenal aeolian transport associated with the Pleistocene Epoch, but supply limiting factors were likely as important then as they are in contemporary high latitude environments, although the wind and solar radiation regimes of this glacial period are not exactly replicated. Field and simulation work on the boundary layer and surface controls, which include wind shear velocity, air density, sediment texture, pore water, snow, ice, and vegetation, suggests a complex system of interactions. Frozen and wet surfaces, traditionally viewed as stable, become very active under certain circumstances.