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Moving towards a more mechanistic approach in the determination of soil heat flux from remote measurements - I. A universal approach to calculate thermal inertia

Murray, T. and Verhoef, A. (2007) Moving towards a more mechanistic approach in the determination of soil heat flux from remote measurements - I. A universal approach to calculate thermal inertia. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 147 (1-2). pp. 80-87. ISSN 0168-1923

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To link to this item DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2007.07.004

Abstract/Summary

In this paper we pledge that physically based equations should be combined with remote sensing techniques to enable a more theoretically rigorous estimation of area-average soil heat flux, G. A standard physical equation (i.e. the analytical or exact method) for the estimation of G, in combination with a simple, but theoretically derived, equation for soil thermal inertia (F), provides the basis for a more transparent and readily interpretable method for the estimation of G; without the requirement for in situ instrumentation. Moreover, such an approach ensures a more universally applicable method than those derived from purely empirical studies (employing vegetation indices and albedo, for example). Hence, a new equation for the estimation of Gamma(for homogeneous soils) is discussed in this paper which only requires knowledge of soil type, which is readily obtainable from extant soil databases and surveys, in combination with a coarse estimate of moisture status. This approach can be used to obtain area-averaged estimates of Gamma(and thus G, as explained in paper II) which is important for large-scale energy balance studies that employ aircraft or satellite data. Furthermore, this method also relaxes the instrumental demand for studies at the plot and field scale (no requirement for in situ soil temperature sensors, soil heat flux plates and/or thermal conductivity sensors). In addition, this equation can be incorporated in soil-vegetation-atmosphere-transfer models that use the force restore method to update surface temperatures (such as the well-known ISBA model), to replace the thermal inertia coefficient.

Item Type:Article
Divisions:Science > School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science > Department of Geography and Environmental Science
Science > School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science > Earth Systems Science
Interdisciplinary centres and themes > Soil Research Centre
ID Code:3903
Uncontrolled Keywords:energy balance thermal conductivity thermal inertia soil heat flux remote sensing NET-RADIATION RATIO SURFACE-TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTS ENERGY-BALANCE VEGETATION INDEXES MODEL MOISTURE PARAMETERIZATION CONDUCTIVITY
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