A windstreak is a planetary surface feature of aeolian origin characterized by an

albedo Albedo ( ; ) is the fraction of sunlight that is Diffuse reflection, diffusely reflected by a body. It is measured on a scale from 0 (corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation) to 1 (corresponding to a body that reflects ...

that contrasts with surrounding surface in an elongated pattern. Windstreaks are associated with topographical obstacles, and are very commonly, but not exclusively, found near craters. These features have been observed on Mars, Venus,

Titan Titan most often refers to: * Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn * Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology Titan or Titans may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities Fictional locations * Titan in fiction, fictiona ...

, and the Earth, although they are considered rare on Earth. Terrestrial examples of windstreaks are found at the

Pali-Aike volcanic field The Pali-Aike volcanic field is a volcanic field along the Argentina–Chile border. It is part of a family of back-arc volcanoes in Patagonia, which formed from processes involving the collision of the Chile Ridge with the Peru–Chile Trench. ...

. Windstreaks are a term that is more used in

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an physical object, object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring inform ...

, as such an albedo pattern can be representative of many

geomorphological Geomorphology () is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topography, topographic and bathymetry, bathymetric features generated by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or near Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. Ge ...

features, albeit all of an aeolian origin. All forms of sediment transport ( saltation, traction, and

suspension Suspension or suspended may refer to: Science and engineering * Car suspension * Cell suspension or suspension culture, in biology * Guarded suspension, a software design pattern in concurrent programming suspending a method call and the calling ...

) and sediment sizes (

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

gravel Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gr ...

) are considered to be involved during windstreak formation, but the net result is that some variation occurs between the streak's surface and the surrounding surface. Thomas et al. (1981) suggested three broad types of windstreak, which is still cited in later literature. These types include (1) bright streaks (high albedo streak with low albedo surface), where dust is deposited from suspension; (2) dark streaks (low albedo streak with high albedo surface) characterized by the erosion of bright material; and (3) dark streaks where dark material is emplaced from saltation.

References

{{reflist Aeolian landforms Surface features of bodies of the Solar System Planetary geology