Particle Image Velocimetry of a Dust Devil Observed in a Desert

• DOI: 10.2151/sola.2014-022
• Publication Date: 2014-07-26T23:20:28Z
• Authors: Junshi Ito; Hiroshi Niino
• Keywords: Desert (philosophy); Particle (ecology)

Dust devils are small-scale atmospheric vortices that often observed on deserts. Using a video of dust devil occurred in close distance, this study attempts to apply Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) obtain flows the for first time. Images taken by two cameras enable us connect pixel size into actual length scale. The estimated maximum tangential wind and updraft 16 m s-1 6 s-1, respectively. These speeds comparable these strong ones reported previous observational studies.