Evaluation of Soil Thermal Conductivity Schemes for Use in Land Surface Modeling

Soil thermal conductivity is an important physical parameter in modeling land surface processes. Previous studies on evaluations of parameterization schemes of soil thermal conductivity are mostly based on specific experimental conditions or local soil samples, and their recommendations may not be the optimal schemes for land surface model (LSMs). In this work, seven highly recommended soil thermal conductivity schemes are evaluated for their applicability in LSMs. With the consideration of both scheme estimations and land process simulations by incorporation into the Common Land Model, the Balland and Arp [2005] scheme is found to consistently perform best among all the schemes, and thus can be recommended as a superior scheme for land modeling use. Uncertainty analyses by in-situ simulations demonstrate that, over relatively dry regions, the inter-scheme variations of soil thermal conductivity can lead to significant differences of simulated soil temperature, especially at deep layers, due to changes of downward soil heat conduction and the associated freeze-thaw cycles. However, few effects appear over wet regions, likely due to the high soil heat capacity induced by high soil moisture levels, which increases the heat inertia in soil thermodynamics. Global comparisons show the similar relationships that soil thermal conductivity significantly affects the simulated soil temperature and other related thermal and hydraulic variables over arid and semi-arid regions in mid- and high-latitudes. These results display the role of soil thermal conductivity in LSM, and suggest the importance of the evaluation and further development of thermal conductivity schemes with respect to land modelling applications.