  Erosion by ion-beam sputtering (IBS) of amorphous targets at off-normal
incidence frequently produces a (nanometric) rippled surface pattern, strongly
resembling macroscopic ripples on aeolian sand dunes. Suitable generalization
of continuum descriptions of the latter allows us to describe theoretically for
the first time the main nonlinear features of ripple dynamics by IBS, namely,
wavelength coarsening and non-uniform propagation velocity, that agree with
similar results in experiments and discrete models. These properties are seen
to be the anisotropic counterparts of in-plane ordering and (interrupted)
pattern coarsening in IBS experiments on rotating substrates and at normal
incidence.
