Analytic modelling of solar radiation: Driven temperature variations of outdoor surfaces (Q1091861)

An analytic model is described for the variation of surface temperature \(T_ 0(t)\) of a freely evaporating or totally dry surface exposed to complicated, non-analytic variations of meteorological conditions expressed in \((N+1)\)-point time series form. Its basis is a parameterized, analytic representation of \(T_ 0\), inserted in linearized equations describing the surface energy balance and the concurrent underlying heat conduction. Applied to diurnal variations (with \(N=24)\) over bare soil, the model reproduces observed temperatures with a typical standard deviation less than 1 K, and the daily mean within 0.1 K. The method should find general application in modelling of storage systems subject to complicated, discretely-sampled boundary conditions, where a linear analytic equation links the latter to the storage term.