Spatio-temporal evolution of aeolian sand patterns in the Boulenouar Region, Mauritania: Insights from InSAR coherence and K-means Analysis

Spatio-temporal evolution of aeolian sand patterns in the Boulenouar Region, Mauritania: Insights from InSAR coherence and K-means Analysis | 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 Research Article Spatio-temporal evolution of aeolian sand patterns in the Boulenouar Region, Mauritania: Insights from InSAR coherence and K-means Analysis Yaghoub Ahmed Deya, Mohamed Henoune This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5278120/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This study combines Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) techniques with Sentinel-1B data and NASA's MERRA-2 reanalysis meteorological data to monitor the annual spatiotemporal evolution of aeolian processes in the arid region of Boulenouar, northwest Mauritania. Analysis of 31 SAR images acquired between February 2020 and February 2021 identifies three key areas affected by wind activity: a vast field of mobile barkhan dunes, the town of Boulenouar, and the surrounding road and rail infrastructure. Unsupervised k-means classification of coherence images shows that 19.4% of the dunes are highly active. The study indicates an annual erosion rate of 3.84% to the north and west, accompanied by a sedimentation rate of 15.56% along transport axes and around Boulenouar. Correlated with NASA meteorological data, the analysis shows that wind activity is most intense in spring and summer. This study highlights the potential of coupling Sentinel-1 InSAR data with meteorological data to finely map wind dynamics in desert environments. Aeolian processes InSAR coherence Spatiotemporal monitoring K-means classification NASA meteorological data Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted 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. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. 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-5278120","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":371608350,"identity":"7bbcc347-6545-41cd-bcc8-73af8e8edcdb","order_by":0,"name":"Yaghoub Ahmed Deya","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA2UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACgwMMDMwMbEAWewOIa0GKFp4DIK4EYS2SDTAtEgkgPhFa+NkPP3xcUGaT2D/z+dUNPwokGPjbuxPwamHjSTM2nnEuLXHG7Zyymz1Ah0mcObsBvxaGHDZp3rbDiQ23c9Ju8AC1GEjkEtDC/wak5X/i/Jtn0m7+IUqLBNiWA4kbbrAfu02cLRLPQH5JNt54JofttoyBBA9hv/Ang0LMTnbe8ePPbr75YyPH396LXwsMODYw8BiAGDxEKQcBe2CKeUC06lEwCkbBKBhZAABPcUeJwe77rAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Faculty of Science and Technology","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yaghoub","middleName":"Ahmed","lastName":"Deya","suffix":""},{"id":371608351,"identity":"83ea137c-2751-4568-9296-be7bdee707ea","order_by":1,"name":"Mohamed Henoune","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Faculty of Science and Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mohamed","middleName":"","lastName":"Henoune","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-10-16 19:38:10","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5278120/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5278120/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":69297498,"identity":"647fec39-f67a-4bce-ab2c-91a800e6dd3e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-11-19 01:53:52","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1536438,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"YaghoubArticle.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5278120/v1_covered_c1a554b8-ad4b-430a-beb6-4ec2ca85aad6.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Spatio-temporal evolution of aeolian sand patterns in the Boulenouar Region, Mauritania: Insights from InSAR coherence and K-means Analysis","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Aeolian processes, InSAR coherence, Spatiotemporal monitoring, K-means classification, NASA meteorological data","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5278120/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5278120/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"This study combines Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) techniques with Sentinel-1B data and NASA's MERRA-2 reanalysis meteorological data to monitor the annual spatiotemporal evolution of aeolian processes in the arid region of Boulenouar, northwest Mauritania. 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