Discrimination of Soil Physical Parameters, Thermal Inertia, and Soil Moisture from Diurnal Surface Temperature Fluctuations

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Abstract
A coupled heat and moisture flux model was used to study the influence of soil physical parameters and moisture content on diurnal surface temperature fluctuations. The study was performed for a grass cover under summer and autumn conditions for four soil types, ranging from sand to clay. The results show that it may be possible to use the daily maximum and minimum surface temperature measurements to discriminate several soil physical characteristics, including soil moisture. Further, ignoring the lower boundary heat flux, as is usually done in thermal inertia mapping but which can vary substantially in relation to different hydrological recharge and discharge areas, may lead to significant errors in the interpretation of soil moisture, thermal inertia, and transpiration.