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Errors Associated with the Combination Method for Estimating Soil Heat Flux
Author(s) -
Massman W. J.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj1993.03615995005700050006x
Subject(s) - soil water , soil science , environmental science , weighting , heat flux , soil thermal properties , term (time) , flux (metallurgy) , heat transfer , materials science , thermodynamics , field capacity , physics , quantum mechanics , acoustics , metallurgy
Errors are common to all methods of measuring soil heat flux. This study examines some of the errors that result when estimating the heat storage term (employed by the combination method) from measurements of the time rate of change of soil temperatures. Based on analytical models of the vertical profiles of soil temperature, my results indicate that errors of ±3 to 10% in the estimate of soil beat flux can result from following recommended procedures. For homogenous soils, these errors can be reduced by about 67% using two soil thermometers with unequal weighting to estimate the heat storage term. However, minimizing these errors for inhomogeneous soils may not be possible without detailed information on the vertical structure of the soil thermal properties.