Re: New High Resolution and Global Views of Mars
Dunes are a consequence of periodic waves in the wind, sweeping sand into heaps.
It's more complex than this, of course, since the dunes creep forward and are eroded on one side and built up constantly on the other and so it's a sort of caterpillar-track process.
Nonetheless, the shape of the dune influences the strenght of the wind, and the strength of the wind influences the deposition vs erosion.
Dunes on Earth are similarly beautiful, complex, almost periodic, and frustrating to explain with mathematics. Look up some websites on desert dunes. You have a visual feast in store...