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A great deal of effort has been expended in measuring turbulence phenomena in clean air flows. However, no previous measurements have been successfully made of the vertical distributions of turbulence intensity and Reynolds stress in a fully adjusted boundary‐layer flow saturated with saltating particles. The present wind tunnel study addresses this knowledge gap using a custom designed laser‐Doppler anemometer (LDA). The amount of turbulence is found to increase with the introduction of saltating particles to the airflow. Over the lowest 15% of boundary layer, vertical profiles of the streamwise wind speed provide friction velocities that lie well within the narrow range of those derived from direct measurement of the Reynolds stress. Relative to clean air, aeolian saltation is demonstrated to increase the magnitude but not the frequency of burst‐sweep events that primarily contribute to the total fluid stress. Within several millimeters above the bed surface, all vertical profiles of wind speed converge upon a focal point, as the local fluid stress declines toward the mobile bed.

Grainfall deposition and associated grainflows in the lee of aeolian dunes are important in that they are preserved as cross‐beds in the geological record and provide a key to the interpretation of the aeolian rock record. Despite their recognized importance, there have been very few field, laboratory or numerical simulation studies of leeside depositional processes on aeolian dunes. As part of an ongoing study, the relationships among grainfall, wind (speed and direction), stoss sand transport rates and dune morphometry (height and aspect ratio) were investigated on four relatively small, straight‐crested transverse dunes at Silver Peak, Nevada. Between 55% and 95% of the total grainfall was found to be deposited within 1 m of the crest, and 84–99% within 2 m, depending primarily on dune size and shape. Grainfall decay rates on high dunes of large aspect ratio were observed to be very consistent, with a weak positive dependence on wind speed. For small dunes with low aspect ratios, grainfall deposition was more varied and decreased rapidly within 1 m of the dune crest, whereas at increased distance from the dune crest, it eventually approached the smaller decay rates observed on the large dunes. No dependence of grainfall on wind speed was observed for these small dunes. Comparison of field data with predictions from Anderson's (1988) saltation model of grainfall, based on the computation of saltation path lengths, indicates lack of agreement in the following areas: (1) deposition rate magnitude; (2) variation in decay rate with wind speed; and (3) the magnitude and location of the localized lee‐slope depositional maxima. The Silver Peak field results demonstrate the importance of dune aspect ratio and related wake effects in determining the rate and pattern of grainfall. This work confirms earlier speculation by McDonald & Anderson (1995) that temporary, turbulent suspension (or `modified saltation') of relatively large grains does occur within the dune wake, so that transport distances generally are larger than predicted by numerical simulations of `true' saltation.

A series of wind tunnel tests were carried out to investigate the development of deflation lags in relation to the non‐erodible roughness element concentration. Glass spheres (18 mm in diameter) were placed along the complete length of the wind tunnel working section in regular staggered arrays using three different spacings (d=18, 30 and 60 mm) and completely covered with a 0.27‐mm erodible sand. A pre‐selected free stream velocity above threshold (8m s−1) was established above the surface and the sediment transport measured at 2‐s intervals using a wedge‐shaped trap in which an electronic balance is incorporated. Throughout each test, the emerging lag surface was periodically photographed from above at two locations upwind of the trap. The photographs were electronically scanned and analysed to calculate the lag element coverage and location, as well as mean height and frontal area for each time period. Test results indicate that lag development has a profound effect on both the sediment flux and wind profile characteristics. Initially, there is an increase in sediment flux above that for a rippled sand bed because of increased erosion around and reduced kinetic energy loss in highly elastic collisions with the emerging roughness elements. With further emergence, a dynamic threshold is reached whereupon the sediment flux decreases rapidly, tending towards zero. At this point, the supply of grains to the air stream through fluid drag follows a reduction in aerodynamic roughness and, therefore, surface shearing stress. At least as important is the lesser potential for grain ejection at impact because of reduced momentum imparted from the air stream during saltation. Although recent shear stress partitioning models indicate when particle movement may commence on varying surfaces, our experimental results demonstrate that this partitioning has a further direct bearing upon the saltation flux ratio.