International Journal of Physics and Research (IJPR) ISSN 2250-0030 Vol.2, Issue 2 Dec 2012 1-8 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.,
ANALYSING THE IMPACT OF SOIL PARAMETERS ON THE SENSIBLE HEAT FLUX USING SIMULATED TEMPERATURE CURVE MODEL UNO E. UNO & MOSES E. EMETERE Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology of Minna, Nigeria
ABSTRACT Researchers have shown that sensible heat flux play important role in agriculture, health and environment. Temperature deviation curve model was used to investigate the impact of soil parameters on the sensible heat flux. The fractional relationship between the sensible heat flux and soil heat flux were worked out. The results showed that the original equation of Sellers et al.,(1996) need to be properly reviewed to enable an holistic calculation of the earth’s net radiation.
KEYWORDS: Sensible Heat Flux, Soil Heat Flux, Soil Damp Depth, Soil Density Ratio And Earth’s Net Radiation INTRODUCTION The importance of sensible heat flux cannot be overemphasized. It can be used to model evaporation within various region of the world. Sensible heat flux is the rate of heat loss to the air by convection and conduction, due to a temperature difference. Albertson et al.,(1995) worked on the use of atmospheric similarity theory to analyze the impact of air temperature on the sensible heat flux. They concluded that the air temperature provides a better a parameter for measuring sensible heat flux than wind speed or evaporation as researched by Guymon et al.,(1990). This sensible heat flux was proven to be the same as the soil heat flux on a well-watered and full-vegetation-covered surface (Kustas et al., 1990; Cheng et al., 2009). In the contrary, Angelina et al.(2008) and Sellers et al.,(1996) gave a mathematical equation showing the net radiation energy and its component- sensible heat flux, latent heat flux and soil heat flux. They proved that soil heat flux is negligible because it contributes less than 15% of the net radiation energy. Other researcher (Idso et al., 1975) reported that the soil heat flux contributes up to 50% of the net radiation. The (Pan et al., 1987). The temperature curve model has been used in different aspect of soil science i.e. to determine the susceptibility of Abuja metropolis to soil compaction (Uno et al., 2012a); determine the annual amplitude of the surface soil temperatures of the same region (Uno et al., 2012a); estimate soil heat flux from both short and long-term remotely sensed surface temperature (Uno et al., 2012b); prediction and monitoring earthquakes (Emetere, 2012). In this paper, the importance of temperature deviation curve was discussed with respect to sensible heat flux to primarily determine the impact of soil properties on sensible flux density. Furthermore, this paper (upon further research) may be used to discuss atmospheric heat dynamics and the health hazards from atmospheric radiations.
BACKGROUND THEORY The temperature deviation curve model introduced by Uno et al.,(2012) is given by sensible heat flux affects the soil water content over a specific region. Likewise, the soil water content controls the soil heat flux and evapotranspiration because the soil heat conductivity and the soil heat capacity are strong functions of soil water content
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