Wang, J.; Bras, R. L.; Sivandran, G.; Knox, R. G.
Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 37, Issue 5
A simple method for estimating thermal inertia using daily amplitude of surface soil heat flux and temperature is proposed. Based on an analytical solution of the diffusion equation where the soil temperature is idealized as a sinusoidal function, the thermal inertia is expressed as a proportional coefficient in a linear equation relating the amplitudes of surface soil (ground) heat flux and temperature. Tests of the proposed method demonstrate that this simple method is potentially useful in the Earth and extra-terrestrial remote sensing.