On Dust Devil Diameters, Occurrence Rates, and Activity

Abstract

As a phenomenon that occurs on Earth and on Mars, the diameter of a dust devil helps determine the amount of dust the devil injects into the atmosphere for both worlds -- for a given dust flux density (dust lifted per area per time), a wider devil will lift more dust into the air. However, the factors that determine a dust devil's diameter $D$ and how it might relate to ambient conditions have remained unclear. Moreover, estimating the contribution to an atmospheric dust budget from a population of dust devils with a range of diameters requires an accurate assessment of the differential diameter distribution, but considerable work has yet to reveal the best representation or explain its physical basis. In this study, we propose that this distribution follows a power-law $\propto D^{-5/3}$ and provide a simple physical explanation for why the distribution takes this form. By fitting diameter distributions of martian dust devil diameters reported in several studies, we show that the data from several studies support this proposed form. Using a previous model that treats dust devils as thermodynamic heat engines, we also show that the areal density of dust devils (number per unit area) $N_0$ scales with the product of their thermodynamic efficiency $\eta$ and the sensible heat flux $F_{\rm s}$ as $N_0 \propto \eta F_{\rm s}$.