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Imagery, soil profiles, and meteorological data from December 2020 to April 2021, Grand Falls Dune Field, Arizona

Metadata Updated: November 26, 2025

Grand Falls dune field (GFDF) is located on the Navajo Nation, ~70 km NE of Flagstaff, AZ. This active dune field displays a range of morphologies, including barchans, smaller dunes, and ripples, and is bimodal in composition. The felsic component is likely derived from the Little Colorado River, and the mafic component (basaltic grains) is locally sourced from nearby cinder cones [1]. GFDF is an excellent analog site for both active dunes on Mars and other planetary bodies that have dune-like features (e.g., Venus and Titan). We have set up a meteorological station within the dune field that records temperature, barometric pressure, relative humidity, wind direction, wind speed, solar radiation, and precipitation. In addition, an array of temperature and relative humidity sensors were deployed at five different depths within the soil to capture diurnal temperatures and humidity variations. This array is located near the meteorological station and both sets of instruments collect data every 15 minutes. A set of cameras have been positioned near an active ripple field, ~7 m southeast of the meteorological station. The cameras take images every 10 minutes to monitor ripple movement. A series of images were also taken using a NIKON D250 camera, in which data were then processed using the software Agisoft Metashope Professional to create a digital elevation model of the ripple field. [1] Hayward, R. K. et al. (2010) 2nd Int. Plan. Dunes Wrkshp., Abstract #2004.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 26, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 26, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-614b9706d34e0df5fb97c6c1
Data Last Modified 2021-09-29T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id dddcd1af-d4fd-419c-b5db-d8975a23d3e6
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 55e95d87477183835c531491e517dfdef228b734484c29e9a4fd39b0590aab4b
Source Schema Version 1.1

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