Thermal characteristics and prediction of soil temperature using annual temperature variations at killikulam tuticorin

Abstract

Soil temperature is a necessary parameter in spatial monitoring and weather newlineforecasting. It plays an important role in many processes, such as physical, newlinechemical reactions and biological interactions in the soil. The solar energy newlineabsorbed by the soil surface is transmitted into the soil by conduction and is finally newlineutilized to increase the temperature and to decrease the soil moisture. The newlineexchange of heat across the soil surface significantly influences diurnal soil newlinetemperature variations and in turn, thermal characteristics such as specific heat, newlineheat capacity, thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity changes etc., Thermal newlineproperties are involved in the energy partitioning of the soil along vertical soil newlineprofile. newlineSoil temperature data can be used to make predictions of how the newlineecosystem is affected by the warming or cooling of global temperature. The newlinemeasurement of the soil temperature at different depths is very important in newlineatmospheric boundary layer and agro-meteorological studies. newlineWeather data for this work has been collected from the Meteorological newlineDepartment of Agricultural College and Research Institute at Killikulam, Tuticorin newlineDistrict of Tamil Nadu during the period 1993-2007 at two soil depths 0.1 and newline0.2 m. The chosen weekly weather data were split into four seasons as per the newlineIndian Meteorological Department (IMD) classification of climate and the analyses newlinewere carried out. newline