Morphology and migration data of protodunes and barchans on Mars and Earth

This dataset includes measurements of protodune and barchan height, length and migration on both Mars and Earth. Earth measurements were calculated from high resolution Terrestrial Laser Scans (TLS) of bedforms migrating through time in coastal and desert regions. Raw point cloud data can be found at Nield et al. (2023a; 2023b; 2025a; 2025b). Mars measurements were calculated from High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) imagery. Nield, J.M., Baddock, M.C., Wiggs, G.F.S. (2023). Surface and Meteorological Data of Protodune Dynamics at Helga's Interdune Area, Gobabeb, Namib Desert, Namibia on 13th September 2022. NERC EDS National Geoscience Data Centre. (Dataset). https://doi.org/10.5285/10203f53-7471-4b8e-8177-74aef66bb432 Nield, J.M., Wiggs, G.F.S., Baddock, M.C. (2023). Surface and Meteorological Data of Protodune Dynamics at Brancaster Beach, UK on 12th August 2016. NERC EDS National Geoscience Data Centre. (Dataset). https://doi.org/10.5285/26eacb3a-982b-4d5c-bb48-9bc4de4dfb40 Nield, J. M., Wiggs, G. F. S., Baddock, M. C., Nangolo, S. N., Huck, R. A., Rambert, C. (2025). Surface and meteorological data of protodune dynamics at Helga's interdune area (north), Gobabeb, Namib Desert, Namibia from September to December 2023. NERC EDS National Geoscience Data Centre. (Dataset). https://doi.org/10.5285/d5675759-de19-4d47-ba5d-f8fb323bdc24 Nield, J.M., Wiggs, G.F.S., Baddock, M.C., Hipondoka, M.H.T., Delorme, P., Morgan, P.R., Mayaud, J.R., Huck, R.A., Wallum, N.S., Flores Aqueveque, V., Gillies, J.A. (2025) Surface and meteorological data of barchan and protodune dynamics at the Huab Dune Field, Skeleton Coast, Namibia from 2014 to 2023. NERC EDS National Geoscience Data Centre. (Dataset). https://doi.org/10.5285/f7d18a98-9cd5-4b35-b42d-ed9f5afd944d

Date (Creation): 2025-06-03

Identifier: http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13608424

Originator

University of Southampton - Joanna Nield ( School of Geography and Environmental Science )

Highfield , Southampton , SO17 1BJ ,

Originator

University of Oxford - Giles Wiggs ( School of Geography and the Environment )

South Parks Road , Oxford , OX1 3QY ,

Originator

University of Loughborough - Matthew Baddock ( Geography and Environment )

Loughborough , LE11 3TU ,

Originator

University College London - Rebecca Warrilow ( Mullard Space Science Laboratory )

Distributor

British Geological Survey - Enquiries

Point of contact

British Geological Survey - Enquiries

Maintenance and update frequency: notApplicable notApplicable

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

Geology

BGS Thesaurus of Geosciences

NGDC Deposited Data
Mars
Aeolian
Coasts
Lasers
Citable Data
Deserts
Barchan
Earth (planet)

dataCentre

Keywords

NERC_DDC

Access constraints: otherRestrictions Other restrictions

Other constraints: licenceOGL

Other constraints: Available under the Open Government Licence subject to the following acknowledgement accompanying the reproduced NERC materials "Contains NERC materials ©NERC [year]"

Use constraints: otherRestrictions Other restrictions

Other constraints: The copyright of materials derived from the British Geological Survey's work is vested in the Natural Environment Research Council [NERC]. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, without the prior permission of the copyright holder, via the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Manager. Use by customers of information provided by the BGS, is at the customer's own risk. In view of the disparate sources of information at BGS's disposal, including such material donated to BGS, that BGS accepts in good faith as being accurate, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the quality or accuracy of the information supplied, or to the information's suitability for any use. NERC/BGS accepts no liability whatever in respect of loss, damage, injury or other occurence however caused.

Other constraints: Available under the Open Government Licence subject to the following acknowledgement accompanying the reproduced NERC materials "Contains NERC materials ©NERC [year]"

Metadata language: EnglishEnglish

Topic category

Geoscientific information

Geographic identifier

Date (Revision): 2009

Geographic identifier

NAM

Date (Revision): 2009

Geographic identifier

NAMIBIA [id=665000]

Date (Creation): 1979

Geographic identifier

NORFOLK [id=158100]

Date (Creation): 1979

Begin date: 2014-09-01

End date: 2025-05-31

Unique resource identifier: WGS 84 (EPSG::4326)

Distribution format

Excel (.xlsx) ()

Distributor

British Geological Survey - Enquiries

OnLine resource: Data

OnLine resource: Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Warrilow, R., Nield, J. M., Diniega, S., Giles F.S. Wiggs, G. F. S., Baddock, M. C.. (2025). Morphology and migration data of protodunes and barchans on Mars and Earth. NERC EDS National Geoscience Data Centre. (Dataset). https://doi.org/10.5285/fe1cee16-e442-410f-8ffb-60b15e05d804

Hierarchy level: dataset Dataset

Other: dataset

Conformance result

Date (Publication): 2011

Explanation: See the referenced specification

Pass: No

Conformance result

Date (Publication): 2010-12-08

Explanation: See http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:323:0011:0102:EN:PDF

Pass: No

Statement: Leica TLS was used to collect the topographic measurements of barchans and protodunes on Earth in coastal and desert regions. The processed bedform morphometrics are contained within this dataset. Mars bedform morphometry was derived HiRISE imagery containing a digital terrain model (DTM) or at least two overlapping images useable for high-resolution change detection. Protodune site selection criteria included having nearby barchan or barchanoid mature dune forms ; having a shape and pathway that did not appear to be inhibited by topography and visible ripples on the protodune surface. Morphometric parameters were digitised from imagery; length was measured as the maximum distance in the windward direction, perpendicular to the ripples. Bedform displacement, was the average lee advancement between the time differenced orthoimages.