Field investigations near Gobabeb have also
contributed to the study of wind flow over dunes.
Lancaster (1985, 1989) reported measurements of
the changes of wind speed over linear dunes close
to Gobabeb (along with measurements on transverse
dunes on the Skeleton Coast). Livingstone
(1986, 1988) used the Visitors’ Dune site for measurements
of wind speed and employed smoke
flares for flow visualization. Both of these studies
provided early empirical measurements of the geomorphological
dynamics of dunes. However, later
work showed the shortcomings of measurements of
wind speed for ascertaining shear stresses on dune
slopes, and field observations are now often used in
models of aeolian processes at a dune-field scale
rather than at the scale of a single dune (Wiggs
2001; Livingstone et al. 2007).