Meteorology

Aeolian Landscape

A fan blows white flakes around inside a 1 meter diameter black cylindrical box with a glass top. The flakes form dunes that move and shift with the wind. Eroding in some places, traveling a while, then being deposited elsewhere, the dunes move. Visitors turn a small wheel that changes the direction in which the fan blows the air. As the air flow changes, the pattern of the dunes also changes.  The dunes of plastic flakes in this exhibit show behavior like that of dunes formed by wind blowing over sand and snow. The shape of the dunes influences the pattern of the wind that in turn influences the shape of the dunes.