Reformulation of the Used Model to Estimate Soil Temperature

Abstract

The Earth is permanently surrounded by cloud cover that, particularly, is an essential component in the planet’s energy balance. In turn, cloud cover intervenes in the main conditioning factor for soil temperature: solar radiation. In particular, the soil thermal amplitude should be dampened with the attenuation of solar radiation. However, the scientific community rarely analyzes this relationship, neglecting the model that is used to estimate the soil temperature. In this context, the present study seeks to reformulate the model by inserting a variable referent to cloud cover. Thus, to achieve this objective, a physical-mathematical review of the heat flow in the vertical profile of soil is performed. The reformulated model indicates the influence of cloud cover, intervening for both the soil’s heating (nighttime period) and cooling (daytime period). Finally, the reformulated model should be employed to estimate the soil thermal behavior (in particular, on “overcast sky” days).

Keywords

• energy balance
• cloud cover
• soil temperature