Simulation of Bare Soil Surface Energy Balance at Tongyu reference site in Semiarid Area

Simulation of the Bare Soil Surface Energy Balance at the Tongyu Reference Site in Semiarid Area of North China

The performance of a 1-D soil model in a semiarid area of North China was investigated using observational data from a cropland station at the Tongyu reference site of the Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period (CEOP) during the non-growing period, when the ground surface was covered with bare soil. Comparisons between simulated and observed soil surface energy balance components as well as soil temperatures and water contents were conducted to validate the soil model. Results show that the soil model could produce good simulations of soil surface temperature, net radiation flux and sensible heat flux against observed values with the RMSE of 1.54oC, 7.71 W m-2 and 27.79 W m-2, respectively. The simulated volumetric soil water content is close to the observed values at various depths with the maximal difference between them being 0.03. Simulated latent heat and ground heat fluxes have relatively lower errors in relative to net radiation and sensible heat flux. In conclusion, the soil model has good capacity to simulate the bare soil surface energy balance at the Tongyu cropland station and needs to be further tested in longer period and at more sites in semiarid areas.