An Analytical Model of Active Layer Depth under Changing Ground Heat
Flux
- Modi ZHU,
- Jingfeng Wang,
- Valeriy Yuryevich Ivanov,
- Aleksey Y Sheshukov,
- Wenbo Zhou,
- Liujing Zhang,
- Valeriy Mazepa,
- Alexandr Sokolov,
- Victor Valdayskikh
Valeriy Yuryevich Ivanov
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Author ProfileAlexandr Sokolov
Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Arctic Research Station
Author ProfileAbstract
A physically based analytical model is formulated to simulate the thaw
depth of active layer under changing boundary condition of soil heat
flux. The energy conservation statement leads to a nonlinear integral
equation of the thaw depth using an approximate temperature profile as
an analytical solution of the diffusion equation describing the heat
transfer in the active layer. The time-varying soil surface heat flux is
estimated using non-gradient models when field observations are not
available. The proposed model was validated against field observations
at three Arctic forest and tundra sites. The simulated thaw depth and
soil temperature profiles are in good agreement with observations
hinting the potential for model application at larger spatial scales.15 Jun 2023Submitted to ESS Open Archive 23 Jun 2023Published in ESS Open Archive