A Dynamics of Surface Temperature Forced by Solar Radiation

Abstract

Due to lack of a unified description of the Earth surface temperature, a generic dynamic equation is postulated as an inference from the special case of snow. Solar radiation is explicitly included in the formulation for transparent media such as snow, ice and water while implicitly through (conductive) surface heat flux for non-transparent media such as soil. The physical parameters of the equation are medium thermal inertia, thermal and radiative diffusivity. The equation for transparent media reduces to the familiar force-restore model of soil surface temperature when the penetration depth of solar radiation tends to zero. Proof-of-concept validation for snow surface temperature as a paradigm of transparent media at three sites in the Arctic and Antarctica confirms the postulated equation as a generic description of the dynamics of surface temperature.