Effect of latent heat transfer on diurnal and annual prediction of temperature and radiobrightness of northern prairie

Prairie Biosphere-Atmosphere Interchange (BAI) fluxes of energy and moisture influence mid-continent atmospheric circulation. The energy fluxes of radiant heat, sensible heat, and latent heat are strongly coupled to soil temperature and moisture content, and through these to radiobrightness. The authors´ long term objective is to develop a BAI model that will reliably predict radiobrightness based upon radiation and weather forcing. The authors present an element of such a BAI model-an improved annual model for soil temperature. They use the bulk transfer approach to model sensible heat transfer and the Bowen ratio approach to model latent heat transfer. A finite element method is then used to track isotherms within the soil. From these isotherms they find surface temperature and temperature gradient-parameters needed in the computation of radiobrightness. The model predicts that soil temperatures are weakly dependent on latent heat transfer in frozen regions and strongly dependent in thawed regions