Soil material lifted by raindrop impacting flows a few millimetres deep are transported downstream as they fall back to the soil surface. That occurs not only with material that is lifted and remains in the flow, but also material lifted into the air that falls onto the surface of the flow. The amount lifted into the air varies with flow depth and the effect of the input from airborne material on sediment discharged by rain-impacted flows is not normally taken into account in experiments on, or models of, sheet and interrill erosion where flows are more than 1 mm deep. However, in very shallow flows, the airborne input to rain-impacted flows is high and the dominant transport mechanisms the operate in deeper flows no longer operate effectively. Further research into the mechanisms that operate in transporting sediment by rain-impacted flows on slopes with high gradient is warranted.

雨滴撞击流将几毫米深的土壤提升到土壤中，然后回落到土壤表面。这不仅发生在被提升并保留在流中的材料上，还发生在被提升到空气中的材料上，该材料落在流的表面上。进入空气的量随流动深度的变化而变化，而在流量大于1毫米深。但是，在非常浅的水流中，空气传播到受雨水影响的水流的输入量很高，并且在深水流中运行的主要运输机制不再有效运行。