Simulation of air temperature inside the canopy by the LAPS surface scheme

A land–air parameterization scheme (LAPS) describes water vapour, heat and momentum transfer between the land surface and the atmosphere. The scheme is designed as a software package, which can be run as part of an atmospheric, hydrological or ecological model, or as a stand-alone model that operates with seven prognostic variables and 16 morphological and physiological input parameters. Such large number of parameters provides reliable simulation of diurnal courses of meteorological elements inside the crop. In this paper, for simulating the diurnal course of air temperature inside a sunflower field, the LAPS scheme has been used. The results obtained are compared with the results of micrometeorological measurements of a sunflower experimental field of the Oil Crops Department at Rimski Šančevi (Yugoslavia) using data sets from 18 July to 24 July, 1998. The LAPS scheme was compared with two other surface schemes using canopy air temperature data derived from measured air temperature above a maize field at an experimental site in De Sinderhoeve (The Netherlands) for 18 August, 8 September, and 4 October 1988.