A new expression describing the migration of aeolian dunes

•We proposed an analytical expression describing the migration of aeolian dunes.•We can calculate the annual wind regime and frictional wind speed in dune field.•The dune speed obtained by the expression is consistent with field observations.•The expression can apply to the migration speed of other environments.

Based on quantitative simulations on the formation and evolution of aeolian dune fields, a semi-analytical equation describing the migration of aeolian sand dunes with respect to dune height, annual wind regime, frictional wind speed, and sand grain diameter is proposed in this paper through analyzing the migration speeds of aeolian sand dunes with different heights in a dune field. The migration speeds of aeolian sand dunes on Earth predicted by the equation is consistent with field observations, and it can be applied to describe the migration of underwater sand dunes and aeolian snow dunes on Earth, as well as that of aeolian sand dunes on other planets, for example Martian sand dunes. In addition, we can also obtain the annual wind regime and the frictional wind speed in dune fields by the A-W method proposed by this paper for given dune speed and sand diameter. It provides a new way to obtain the information of wind field in desert hinterland and on other planets.