Detection and tracking of barchan dunes using Artificial Intelligence

Detection and tracking of barchan dunes using Artificial Intelligence | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Detection and tracking of barchan dunes using Artificial Intelligence Esteban Cúñez, Erick Franklin This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3553762/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 08 Aug, 2024 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted 6 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Barchans are crescent-shape dunes ubiquitous on Earth and other celestial bodies, which are organized in barchan fields where they interact with each other. Over the last decades, satellite images have been largely employed to detect barchans on Earth and on the surface of Mars, with AI (Artificial Intelligence) becoming an important tool for monitoring those bedforms. However, automatic detection reported in previous works is limited to isolated dunes and does not identify successfully groups of interacting barchans. In this paper, we inquire into the automatic detection and tracking of barchans by carrying out experiments and exploring the acquired images using AI. After training a neural network with images from controlled experiments where complex interactions took place between dunes, we did the same for satellite images from Earth and Mars. We show, for the first time, that a neural network trained properly can identify and track barchans interacting with each other in different environments, using different image types (contrasts, colors, points of view, resolutions, etc.), with confidence scores (accuracy) above 70%. Our results represent a step further for automatically monitoring barchans, with important applications for human activities on Earth, Mars and other celestial bodies. Earth and environmental sciences/Solid earth sciences/Geomorphology Earth and environmental sciences/Solid earth sciences/Geophysics Earth and environmental sciences/Planetary science/Geomorphology Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files suppinfoall.zip Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 08 Aug, 2024 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 30 May, 2024 Reviews received at journal 27 May, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 13 May, 2024 Reviewers invited by journal 07 Apr, 2024 Submission checks completed at journal 01 Apr, 2024 First submitted to journal 24 Mar, 2024 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-3553762","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":307423419,"identity":"9ffd1845-bd25-4151-bdf5-ba89cbea5aa2","order_by":0,"name":"Esteban Cúñez","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"State University of Campinas","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Esteban","middleName":"","lastName":"Cúñez","suffix":""},{"id":307423421,"identity":"1f2ace75-7604-463d-b655-eb1618e99fdc","order_by":1,"name":"Erick Franklin","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABDElEQVRIie3RMUvDQBTA8XcE0qXQNSG1foVXAopY7FfJUYhT2qGL40ngpuIc8EtkM24HB50Ou6bEweAnqJvYoRdiHUoSHR3uPx0PftzjDsBk+pcRRhiM9MEmIoAJgFXPg1+IXxHQJPwLqdCRAMifaSsZePJ+lwAuBo88EGW2oU89q/zYZjC/ZM3EfaCxmwJeJa9rIagq6HNs+16kYDkUzQQV4eQN9gj5LROUFzSVffAiDjRpWWxaE8TzmrxUxPrqItjXRC+GmId6MS4qYnfe4igSu4kW4zwMNJn5qbQvriPlLJ22F1v1yt3qDnGUh+Pyk9+cpRv5XkTZZN5Gvtc7HRDWDRrSv2symUymYwcLtl9jCXI0HwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"State University of Campinas","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Erick","middleName":"","lastName":"Franklin","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2023-11-03 19:44:09","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3553762/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3553762/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-67893-y","type":"published","date":"2024-08-08T15:57:55+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":62298535,"identity":"7faed09d-c292-4a07-92c5-592f2bce01ef","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-08-12 16:14:24","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":3223675,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"revisedmanuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3553762/v1_covered_76c0a063-7782-4182-a8b1-9289a30e7898.pdf"},{"id":57313556,"identity":"1cba5f05-e881-4300-aa5d-48bcb879e718","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-05-29 03:43:07","extension":"zip","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":34648087,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"suppinfoall.zip","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3553762/v1/b952482d1d793cebdeb0e8a0.zip"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Detection and tracking of barchan dunes using Artificial Intelligence","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"scientific-reports","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"scirep","sideBox":"Learn more about [Scientific Reports](http://www.nature.com/srep/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Scientific Reports","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Scientific Reports","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3553762/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3553762/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Barchans are crescent-shape dunes ubiquitous on Earth and other celestial bodies, which are organized in barchan fields where they interact with each other. 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