The physics of Aeolian sand transport

We give a synthetic overview of the state of art of the physics of sand Aeolian transport. We first present the main ideas developed by Bagnold in the middle of the last century. We then review the recent experimental and theoretical advances made in the field and emphasize that the particle flow rate does not exhibit a cubic dependence with the air friction speed, as predicted by Bagnold, but a quadratic one. Finally, we list important open issues that remain. (C) 2015 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.