Deserts 'breathe' watervapor, study shows cornell
dunes to better understand the process by which agricultural lands turn to desert—an interest that has only become more urgent with the rise of global climate change.Whereas other probes can measure large volumes of matter, Louge's probes go deep and small, collecting data on a millimetric scale to pinpoint the exact amount of moisture in—and the density of—sand. To function in a new environment, though, the probes needed to be modified.
The probe eventually revealed just how porous sand is, with a tiny amount of air seeping through it. Previous research had hinted this type of seepage existed in sand dunes, but no one had been able to prove it until now. Louge and his team also determined that desert surfaces exchange less moisture with the atmosphere than expected, and that water evaporation from individual sand grains behaves like a slow chemical reaction.
"We could have published the data 10 years ago to report the accuracy of our approach," Louge said."But it wasn't satisfying until we understood what was going on. Nobody really had done anything like this before. This is the first time that such low levels of humidity could be measured.