SOIL SURFACE HEAT-FLUX - SOME GENERAL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS ON MEASUREMENTS

Soil surface heat flux is often measured incorrectly owing to a lack o f understanding of the processes occurring at the soil surface. To det ermine accurately soil surface heat flux from measurements of heat Aux at some depth below the surface, both heat storage above the plate an d latent heat loss from below the plate must be taken into account. La rge errors can be introduced if heat storage is neglected, and even la rger errors can be found if latent heat processes are ignored. In this paper we describe a general framework for the correct interpretation of field measurements of soil heat flux.