Latent heat effects in subsurface heat transport modelling and their impact on palaeotemperature reconstructions

In cold regions the thermal regime is strongly affected by freezing or melting processes, consuming or releasing large amounts of latent heat. This changes enthalpy by orders of magnitude. We present a numerical approach for the implementation of these effects into a 3-D finite-difference heat transport model. The latent heat effect can be handled by substituting an apparent heat capacity for the volumetric heat capacity of unfrozen soil in the heat transfer equation. The model is verified by the analytical solution of the heat transport equation including phase change. We found significant deviations of temperature profiles when applying the latent heat effect on forward calculations of deep temperature logs. Ground surface temperature histories derived from synthetic data and field data from NE Poland underline the importance of considering freezing processes. In spite of its limitations, the proposed method is appropriate for the study of long-period climatic changes.