GEOB 300 - Modelled soil temperatures for a homogeneous soil.
This web-applet illustrates the analytical solution for the heat flux equation we discussed in Lecture 12. We assume a homogeneous soil and apply a sinusoidal daily course of the surface temperature (first graph, red curve).
The following table summarizes the settings for the above model runs:
| Run | Saturated Mineral Soil | Saturated Peat Soil |
|---|---|---|
| Porosity | 0.55 | 0.85 |
| Soil volumentric water content &thetaw | 0.45 | 0.15 |
| Heat capacity of soil C | 3.2 MJ m-3 K-1 | 3.9 MJ m-3 K-1 |
| Thermal conductivity of soil k | 1.7 W m-1 K-1 | 0.5 W m-1 K-1 |
| Thermal diffusivity of soil µ | 5.0 x 10-7 m2 s-1 | 1.2 x 10-7 m2 s-1 |
| Amplitude of surface temperature wave ΔT0 | 10 K | |
| Daily average surface temperature T0 | 15°C | |
| Wave period P | 86400 s (=1 day) | |
| Wave lag tl | 26400 s | |
University of British Columbia - GEOB 300 - Designed and programmed by: andreas.christen@ubc.ca. Supported by a TLEF grant 'climate@ubc'.
The full source code in form of an interactive LabView VI can be downloaded from https://github.com/achristen/Soil-Temperatures
