What is a specific heat of land?

Answer 1

Air has a heat capacity of 1007 J/(kg K).Water has a heat capacity of 4218 J/(kg K).There is approximately a factor of four difference.

When comparing the effective heat capacities of a column of air and a column of water, the relative masses of the columns must be considered;

A column of air extending to mean sea level (no topography) has a mass of 10^4 kg / m^2 (surface pressure divided by gravity). Thus a column of atmosphere has a heat capacity of about 10^7 J/m^2.

The same mass is found in 10 meters depth of water. Thus, a column of water has a heat capacity of 4*10^7 * (depth / 10 m) J/m^2.

Thus, when comparing the heat capacity of a water column and an air column, there is a factor of four difference for the heat capacity and a factor of water depth / 10 meters for the masses. For example, a 50 meter column of water (typical mixed layer depth) has 4*50/10 = 20 times that of air.

I would love to know some values for the land surface... that's how I ended up here.

Answer 2

The specific heat of soil is 123457 degress celcious.

Answer 3

14256987 degress