Geosciences Journal
Vol. 12, No. 3, p. 255 − 264, September 2008
DOI 10.1007/s12303-008-0026-5
ⓒ The Association of Korean Geoscience Societies and Springer 2008
Estimating apparent thermal diffusivity using temperature time series: A com-
parison of temperature data measured in KMA boreholes and NGMN wells
Min-Ho Koo* Department of Geoenvironmental Sciences, Kongju National University, Chungnam 314-701, Korea
Yoonho Song Groundwater and Geothermal Resources Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources
(KIGAM), Daejeon 305-350, Korea
ABSTRACT: Two different time series data sets, shallow ground
temperatures of 58 synoptic stations of the Korea Meteorological
Administration (KMA) and groundwater temperatures of 67 wells
of the National Groundwater Monitoring Network (NGMN), were
analyzed to estimate the apparent thermal diffusivity by using the
analytical solution of the one-dimensional heat conduction equa-
tion. The KMA temperature data measured at 1-5 m depths illus-
trated values of the phase delay and the amplitude decay coincident
with their theoretical relationship, indicating that the conductive
heat transport should prevail over the nonconductive processes.
On the contrary, some of the estimates from temperatures at a
depth of 0.5 m were away from the theoretical values. It is most
likely that the deviation would be caused by the effects of latent
heat associated with freezing and thawing of the near ground sur-
face. In contrast to KMA data, results obtained from the NGMN
data highly deviated from the theoretical ones, and thereafter
yielded unacceptably high values of thermal diffusivities as com-
pared to the representative values of soils and rocks. Implication
of the discrepancy between two data sets was discussed in con-
junction with perturbation of the conductive heat transport by
free convection of water and air occurring in large diameter wells
as well as the convective heat transport by groundwater flow.
Key words: apparent thermal diffusivity, temperature time series, heat
conduction model, critical geothermal gradient, KMA, NGMN
1. INTRODUCTION
Temperature measurements in boreholes are quite simple
and can be easily performed to get vertical profiles or time
series data. Furthermore, equipments for measuring temper-
ature in boreholes are readily available within the accuracy
of ± 0.01°C. There have been many attempts to use the sub-
surface temperature with a variety of applications in hydro-
geology. It has been used as a tracer for analyzing the
concurrent flow of heat and water along vertical profiles of
the subsurface medium to elucidate vertical groundwater
movement (Bredehoeft and Papdopulos, 1965), groundwa-
ter recharge (Taniguchi and Sharma, 1993; Tabbagh et al.,
1999), percolation rates in the vadose zone (Constantz et
al., 2003) and the pattern of groundwater discharge in a
streambed (Conant, 2004). Anderson (2005) presented a
*Corresponding author: koo@kongju.ac.kr
comprehensive review on the application of temperature to
a variety of hydrogeological settings. Recently, ground tem-
perature data have been vigorously used in reconstructing
past climate changes (Lachenbruch and Marshall, 1986;
Veliciu and Safanda, 1998; Huang et al., 2000; Cermak and
Bodri, 2001; Dorofeeva et al., 2002; Gosselin and Mare-
schal, 2003).
Temperature measurements in shallow vadose environ-
ments are mainly used in agronomical studies to character-
ize soil properties (Passerat de Silans et al., 1996; Verhoef
et al., 1996) and the thermal regime of the active layer
above permafrost (Hinkel, 1997; Hinkel et al., 2001). Tem-
perature time series data measured in soils at a shallow
depth generally show annual cyclic variations, which can be
effectively described by the one-dimensional heat conduc-
tion model. The thermal diffusivity is the key parameter
that controls the temperature in soils near the ground sur-
face where periodic temperature change is progressively
attenuated and delayed with depth. The investigation of soil
temperature variations has practical applications in agricul-
tural engineering, since it can lead to the evaluation of opti-
mum conditions for plant growth and development, and
also can be used for the control of the thermal-moisture
regime of soil (Usowicz et al., 1996). It is also an important
parameter in designing the geothermal heat pump system,
in which extraction of thermal energy is accomplished by
using a ground heat exchanger (GHE). The heat transfer
between the GHE and the surrounding geological forma-
tions occurs primarily by conduction. Thus, the effective
thermal diffusivity of the ground is the fundamental param-
eter in determining a required length of the GHE (Kavanaugh
and Rafferty, 1997). Lee (2006) analyzed characteristics of
ground and groundwater temperature data measured in
Seoul, a metropolitan city of Korea, as a basic feasibility
study for geothermal heat pumps.
The thermal diffusivity of soils and rocks can be obtained
from laboratory experiments (Moench and Evans, 1970;
Stephenson, 1987, Bristow et al., 1994; Kluitenberg et al.,
1995) which, however, often yield unsatisfactory results
since they usually deal with a small size sample in spite of
256 Min-Ho Koo and Yoonho Song
heterogeneities of the real field. Furthermore, in the case of
soils, it is difficult to take undisturbed samples as preserved
as the natural condition of the materials. Therefore, field-
measured ground temperature data have been widely used
as an alternative to estimate the thermal diffusivity (Adams
et al., 1976; Asrar and Kanemasu, 1983). Horton et al. (1983)
analyzed the limitations of the different methods to calcu-
late the thermal diffusivity in terms of the calculated results
and for the quantity and quality of data required to make the
calculations.
Most approaches in the literature to use subsurface tem-
peratures assume that temperatures measured in a borehole
should be in equilibrium with the surrounding media. How-
ever, it has long been recognized that the fluids within open
boreholes, air and water, are subject to being unstable by
free convection, provided that the thermal gradient exceeds
a certain critical value (Krige, 1939). Convection within the
borehole causes borehole temperatures to be different from
the surrounding media, and thereafter misleads the inter-
pretation of temperature data. Diment (1967) and Gretener
(1967) presented observational evidence that water in large
diameter wells was unstable under the normal geothermal
gradient as predicted by the Krige’s formulation. Thus, it
might be inappropriate to use temperature data measured in
large diameter wells to interpret the hydrothermal process
occurring in the subsurface, since the condition of thermal
equilibrium between the borehole and the surrounding
medium could be invalidated by convection.
The primary objective of this paper is to analyze the
apparent thermal diffusivity from two different time series
data sets: shallow ground temperatures of the Korea Mete-
orological Administration (KMA) measured in small diam-
eter boreholes and groundwater temperatures of the National
Groundwater Monitoring Network (NGMN) measured in
large diameter wells. Estimation of the thermal diffusivity
in the literature has been performed mostly by using soil
temperature data in the unsaturated zone, but seldom by
groundwater temperature data. Thus, the motivation of this
study is to compare the results of two different data sets and
further discuss their implications in association with free
convection of fluids within boreholes as well as the con-
vective heat transport due to groundwater flow.
2. METHODS AND MATERIALS
2.1. Theoretical background
The governing equation describing one-dimensional con-
ductive heat transfer in a homogeneous medium is
2 time-periodic surface temperature of Equation (2) in a semi-
∂T ∂ T
------ = α -------2- (1)
∂t ∂z
where T is temperature, t is time, z is the depth from the
ground surface taken as positive downward and α is the
thermal diffusivity of the bulk medium. When the equation
is concerned with the underground medium where both con-
ductive and nonconductive heat transfer processes occur, α
is usually called the ‘apparent’ or ‘effective’ thermal diffu-
sivity. The nonconductive heat transfer includes convection
driven by water and vapor transport, phase changes and
associated latent heat. Although heat transfer in the subsur-
face is dominated by conduction, it is recognized that the
nonconductive processes also play a comparably important
role particularly in the near ground surface. Thus, the esti-
mated apparent thermal diffusivity can be very different
from the real value associated with conduction.
Furthermore, if the vadose zone is concerned, the con-
ductive process becomes quiet complicated in itself, being
affected by presence of water. The vadose zone undergoes
temporal variation of the thermal diffusivity due to associ-
ated variation of its water content driven by precipitation
and evapotranspiration. Soils with higher water contents
tend to have higher thermal diffusivities. Therefore, the heat
conduction model based on the assumption of time-invari-
ant diffusivity can only give approximate results of temper-
ature variation. Conversely, the estimated thermal diffusivity
based on the model of time-invariant diffusivity should be
interpreted as an average value over the period of measure-
ments. Thus, the unsaturated flow leads to a complicated
process of heat transfer in the vadose zone by causing spa-
tiotemporal variation of thermal properties as well as con-
vective heat transfer.
Based on temperature time series data, the apparent ther-
mal diffusivity can be determined by analytical or numer-
ical solutions of Equation (1) with the assumption of constant
diffusivity. Horton et al. (1983) investigated several meth-
ods available for determining the apparent thermal diffusiv-
ity of soil near the ground surface from soil temperatures.
Zhang and Osterkamp (1995) discussed some consider-
ations of finite difference methods in determining the ther-
mal diffusivity from a temperature time series. Analytical
methods are used in this study to estimate the apparent ther-
mal diffusivity.
In order to get the analytical solution of Equation (1), the
periodic oscillations of the ground surface temperature,
expressed as a Fourier series, can be used for a boundary
condition;
M
Ts ( t ) = T0 + ∑ An sin ( nωt + φn ) (2)
n=1
where T0 is the average ground surface temperature, ω is the
fundamental angular frequency, An is the amplitude and φn is
the phase. The analytical solution of Equation (1) with a
infinite half-space is;
M
– z nω ⁄ 2α
T ( z, t ) = T0 + ∑ An e sin ( nωt + φ n – z nω ⁄ 2α )
n=1 (3)
It appears from Equation (3) that there are some analyt-
 Estimating apparent thermal diffusivity using temperature time series
ical expressions available to determine the apparent thermal
diffusivity: the phase equation, the amplitude equation and
the logarithmic equation.
Under the assumption of a periodic surface temperature
with the fundamental angular frequency (M=1), the phase
equation to determine apparent thermal diffusivity can be
derived explicitly from the argument of the trigonometric
term in Equation (3);
2 Thus, it is highly likely that the ground temperatures up to
1 z2 – z1
α = ------- ------------
- (4)
2ω δt
where δt is the phase difference between temperature vari-
ations at the two depths z1 and z2. Three methods are avail-
able to calculate the phase difference from two temperature
time series measured at different depths. First, the phase
delay can be calculated from the sinusoidal functions best-
fitted to the measured temperatures by applying the least
square method. Secondly, it can be obtained from the time
interval between measured occurrences of the maximum
temperature (Horton et al., 1983). Lastly, a cross-correlation
analysis, which is used in this study, can also yield the phase
difference of two temperature time series (Koo et al., 2003).
Under the assumption made above for the phase equation,
the amplitude equation to determine apparent thermal dif-
fusivity can be derived explicitly from the argument of the
exponential term in Equation (3);
2 evidently reflected in the amplitude decay to increase the
ω z2 – z1
α = ---- ------------------------------
- (5)
2 ln ( ΔT1 ⁄ ΔT2 )
where ΔT1 is the amplitude at z1 and ΔT2 is the amplitude at
z2. Similar methods are also available to calculate the ampli-
tudes. First, the sinusoidal functions best-fitted to the mea-
sured temperatures can be also used to get the amplitudes.
Secondly, they can be approximated from the minimum and
maximum temperature readings over a period of the funda-
mental cycle (Hinkel, 1997). Lastly, the amplitude ratio can
be directly obtained from a linear regression analysis of two
temperature time series in which the phase difference, deter-
mined by the cross-correlation analysis, is taken into account
257
to nullify the phase delay (Koo et al., 2003). The last method
is used in this study.
Figure 1 is the calculated results from Equations (4) and
(5) illustrating how the amplitudes of the temperature vari-
ations decay and how the phases are delayed with depth
depending on the thermal diffusivity. Representative values
of the thermal diffusivity for various soils and rocks range
between 0.2 and 1 mm2/sec (Carslaw and Jaeger, 1959).
a depth of 10 m would exhibit discernible annual fluctua-
tions, and could be utilized to determine the apparent ther-
mal diffusivity.
Combining Equations (4) and (5) yields the relationship
between the phase delay and the amplitude ratio;
ln ( ΔT2 ⁄ ΔT1 ) = –ω δt (6)
The phase delay and the amplitude ratio estimated from
two temperature time series at different depths should fol-
low the theoretical relationship as given in Equation (6),
provided that the temperature field is not highly disturbed
by the nonconductive processes of heat transfer. Using both
synthetic and measured time series of temperature data,
Koo et al. (2003) analyzed effects of the vertical water flow
in the vadose zone on the estimates of thermal diffusivity.
In their numerical results, effects of the water flow were
apparent thermal diffusivity. On the contrary, the estimates
obtained from the phase equation gave a remarkably accu-
rate result regardless of occurrence of the water flow.
2.2. Materials
The apparent thermal diffusivities of the shallow ground
in Korea are analyzed by using ground temperature data
measured at 58 synoptic stations of KMA and groundwater
temperature data measured at 264 wells of NGMN consist-
ing of 169 bedrock wells and 95 alluvial wells (Fig. 2).
The ground temperature, a surface observatory element of
Fig. 1. Annual variations of the sub-
surface temperature calculated from
the solution of one-dimensional heat
conduction equation: (a) the amplitude
decay and (b) phase delay with depth.
258 Min-Ho Koo and Yoonho Song
Fig. 2. Location maps of (a) surface synoptic stations of KMA and (b) monitoring stations of NGMN: closed circles represent the mon-
itoring stations with both alluvial and bedrock wells, and open circles represent the stations with a bedrock well only.
meteorological parameters, is being measured at the syn-
optic stations of KMA. It is measured at several depths in
steel boreholes with an inner diameter of 4.2 cm. The anal-
ysis was made for the temperature data over the period from
1981 to 2002 measured at depths of 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 3 and 5
m on a daily basis. All of the data were preprocessed to pro-
duce temperature time series with a sampling interval of 24
hours. A prior process of quality control for raw data was
conducted to eliminate some unacceptable values which
were thought to be associated with wrong readings or inputs
by mistake. The elimination was performed by a simple
numerical scheme where the temperature under inspection
is regarded as a bad data, if it is higher or lower than the
temperature of the previous day by more than 15 °C.
Under the ‘Master plan for groundwater management’ of
the Ministry of Construction and Transportation (MOCT) in
1996, the Korea Water Resources Corporation (KOWACO)
has constructed NGMN to measure and compile nationwide
data on water level, temperature and electrical conductivity
of groundwater. NGMN operates an automated measuring
system on a 6-hour basis. All the data are being collected,
analyzed and provided by the National Groundwater Infor-
mation Management and Service Center (GIMS) in KOWACO
which was established in 2003. Temperature data of 264
monitoring wells which had been installed from 1995 to
2000 were obtained from GIMS, and the data measured
from the beginning of measurements to December of 2001
were used for the analysis.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Analysis of KMA temperature data
In order to estimate the apparent thermal diffusivity of
soils at various depths of KMA stations, the phase and
amplitude equations are applied to time series data of
ground temperatures. Figure 3 shows temporal variation of
ground temperatures at various depths measured at the
Chuncheon station. A clear illustration of the amplitude
decay and the phase delay is observed in the figure, indi-
cating that conduction is the dominant mechanism of heat
transfer in the shallow ground. As discussed above, the
phase delay between two temperature time series is deter-
mined by a cross-correlation analysis (Fig. 4a), and the
apparent thermal diffusivity is calculated by Equation (4).
The amplitude decay is also determined by a linear regres-
sion analysis of two time series of which the phase delay is
nullified (Fig. 4b), and the apparent thermal diffusivity is
calculated by Equation (5).
Figure 5 shows estimates of the phase delay and the
amplitude decay between temperatures at the ground sur-
face (z1) and temperatures at the depths of 0.5, 1, 1.5, 3 and
5 m (z2) determined for 58 KMA stations. The solid line in
Figure 5 represents the theoretical relationship between the
phase delay and the amplitude decay as given in Equation
(6) derived from the solution of one-dimensional heat con-
duction equation. Most of the estimates for temperatures at
depths equal to or greater than 1 m fall closely on the the-
oretical curve, indicating that the conductive process of heat
transfer prevails over the nonconductive processes in the
associated depth intervals. Therefore, the estimated appar-
ent diffusivity should be quite close to the intrinsic diffu-
sivity.
On the contrary, some of the estimates for temperatures
near the ground surface (0.5 m) are far away from the the-
oretical curve. The most likely possibility is that the non-
conductive heat transfer would occur actively near the
ground surface, and thereby could cause a temperature vari-
 Estimating apparent thermal diffusivity using temperature time series 259

Fig. 3. Variations of ground tempera-

ture measured at various depths of the
Chuncheon station.

Fig. 4. Determination of the phase

delay and the amplitude ratio of two
temperature time series by: (a) a cross
correlation analysis and (b) a linear
regression of the two data sets.

ation to deviate from the theoretical one based on the heat

conduction model. As would be expected, soils near the
ground surface are highly vulnerable to freezing and thaw-
ing, convective heat transfer due to infiltrated water and
temporal variation of thermal properties. As illustrated in
Figure 5, the deviation associated with the nonconductive
heat transfer seems to lead to a reduction of the phase delay.
Although not directly explored in this paper, the link
between the nonconductive heat transfer and reduction of
the phase delay could be examined by a numerical model of
heat transfer incorporating convection, phase changes and
associated latent heat.
Figure 6 shows a clear evidence of the nonconductive
heat transfer, illustrating variation of the ground tempera-
ture affected by latent heat associated with freezing and
thawing. During the months of the year when freezing and
thawing of the ground surface occur (January – March), the
ground temperature at a depth of 0.5 m is immune to
change being affected by the latent heat released or
absorbed during phase changes. Thus, the effect of latent Fig. 5. Estimated phase delay and amplitude damping with depth:
heat in the cold season highly disturbs the conductive tem- the solid line represents theoretical values calculated from the
perature variation observed in the other seasons. The per- solution of one-dimensional heat conduction equation.
260 Min-Ho Koo and Yoonho Song
Fig. 6. Variations of surface and ground temperatures showing the
effect of latent heat associated with freezing and thawing of the
near ground surface (Chuncheon KMA station).
sistence of a constant temperature close to zero degree is
directly related to soil water content. It is intuitive that soils
with higher water contents would undergo the latent heat
effect for longer period of time. Soils with smaller particles
generally have higher water contents due to their higher
field capacity and lower permeability. Thus, it is probable
that the latent heat effect would be more pronounced in
fine-grained soils. In addition to the latent heat effect, freez-
ing and thawing of soils also can affect the process of con-
ductive heat transfer by contrasting thermal diffusivities of
water (0.14 mm2/sec) and ice (1.2 mm2/sec). Thus, the heat
transfer in soils near the ground surface is a very compli-
cated process, being affected by the presence of water and
its phase changes in the cold season. As mentioned earlier,
the heat conduction model based on the assumptions of
constant diffusivity and no heat source/sink only gives
approximate results, which sometimes lead to erroneous
predictions depending on the degree of discrepancies between
the assumed and the real field situations.
Conclusively, it appears from Figure 5 that availability of
the phase and amplitude equations based on the simplified
heat conduction model to determine the apparent thermal
diffusivity may be limited particularly for soils near the
ground surface in Korea. In consideration of the results dis-
cussed above, it is likely that the limited availability would
be associated with the freezing and thawing process as well
as the convective heat transfer of water and air which is not
directly accounted for in this paper. These nonconductive
processes generally are more prominent in the top soils
within 0.5 m depth below the ground surface.
Figure 7 shows variations of the apparent thermal diffu-
sivity of KMA soils with depth determined by the ampli-
tude equation. Figure 7a represents thermal diffusivities for
the depth intervals illustrated by arrow lines, and Figure 7b
represents thermal diffusivities for the whole intervals from
the ground surface to the depths given in y-axis. The results
clearly demonstrate that soils at greater depths would have
higher thermal diffusivities. Particularly the drastic increase
can be observed at a depth of 1 m. As discussed in Koo et
al. (2003), variability of the apparent thermal diffusivity
should be attributed to the distinctive differences in the
porosity, the water content and the organic content of soils.
Thus, it is likely that low diffusivities observed in the top
soils would be caused by high porosities due to less com-
paction and development of the aggregate structure, low
water contents driven by evaporation and high organic con-
tents as compared to the underlying soils. The estimated
diffusivity is regarded as an outlier if it is higher than the
upper quartile by more than 1.5 times of the interquartile
range (IQR). It is not clear whether the outliers shown at
shallow depths represent actual diffusivities or not. How-
ever, the outliers plotted in Figure 7a are much higher than
the representative values of soils in the literature (Carslaw
and Jaeger, 1959).
3.2. Analysis of groundwater temperature data of NGMN
3.2.1. Analyzing quality of data
Monitoring data of groundwater temperature in 169 bed-
rock wells and 95 alluvial wells of NGMN are used to esti-
mate the apparent thermal diffusivity. The average installation
Fig. 7. Variations of the estimated ther-
mal diffusivity with depth: each box-
whisker plot represents thermal diffu-
sivities for (a) the depth interval illus-
trated by arrow lines and (b) the
interval from the ground surface to the
depth given in y-axis.
 Estimating apparent thermal diffusivity using temperature time series
depths of bedrock and alluvial wells are 70 m and 20 m,
respectively. Data loggers of the alluvial wells are mostly
placed at depths from 5 m to 10 m below the ground sur-
face, depending on the well depth and the water level. Most
data loggers of the bedrock wells are placed at a depth of
20 m. In consideration of the depths of temperature mea-
surements, it is expected from Figure 1 that a periodic tem-
perature variation with discernible amplitude would be
observed in the alluvial wells; meanwhile it may or may not
be noticeable in the bedrock wells. Thus, if the conductive
heat transfer prevails in the subsurface of monitoring wells,
groundwater temperatures would be periodic or practically
constant depending on the depth of measurements.
However, the expectation of steady periodicity or con-
stancy has failed in many temperature data sets of NGMN.
The failure is thought to be mainly caused by malfunction
of the data logger for a certain period of time. In spite of
regular inspection of monitoring stations and prompt
replacement of malfunctioning devices in the data logger,
abnormal values or outliers often occur due to intrinsic lim-
itations of automatic monitoring and transmission (Yi et al.,
2005). Yi et al. (2005) analyzed NGMN data sets of mon-
itoring wells in the Han River basin and found that the most
prominent patterns of the outliers were rapid decline in
water level, no variation in temperature and steep decline in
electrical conductivity. However, inspection of the table
summarizing the outliers in Yi et al. (2005) reveals that no
variation in temperature is mostly found in the bedrock
wells. As mentioned above, it is expected that the bedrock
wells would show a periodic temperature variation with
small amplitudes or a constant temperature due to a great
depth of measurements. Thus, consideration of no variation
as one of criteria to recognize outliers in temperature may
lead to a wrong judgment, unless the depth of measure-
ments is taken into account in the analysis.
In this study, temperature variations observed in 264
monitoring wells of NGMN are classified into three pat-
terns. First, based on the speculation discussed above, tem-
perature data sets showing periodicity or constancy for the
whole period of measurements are considered normal or
natural (Fig. 8a). Secondly, date sets showing irregular or
abrupt changes and steady increase or decrease are consid-
ered abnormal or artificial (Fig. 8b). It is likely that abnor-
mal variations occurred mainly due to malfunction of the
data logger and partially due to artificial impacts such as
groundwater contamination and nearby construction accom-
panying ground excavation. Finally, date sets having abnor-
mal variations for a certain period of time are considered
mixed (Fig. 8c). The spikes in temperature observed in Fig-
ure 8a and 8c are related to short-term disturbances by reg-
ular inspection of the data logger and pumping for well-
maintenance and water sampling. The analysis for temper-
ature data sets observed in 264 monitoring wells illustrates
that the normal, abnormal and mixed variations are found in
261
Fig. 8. Patterns of temperature variation observed in the monitor-
ing wells of NGMN: (a) normal (periodic or constant), (b) abnor-
mal, and (c) mixed.
171 (64.8%), 27 (10.2%), and 66 stations (25%), respectively.
The stations with normal variations comprise 85 stations
with periodic variation and 86 stations with no variation.
The stations with mixed variations also show periodic vari-
ation (10 stations) as well as no variation (56 stations), if
the fractions with abnormal variations are ignored.
3.2.2. Determination of the apparent thermal diffusivity
Temperature data of the 95 monitoring stations showing
periodic variations are used to estimate the apparent thermal
diffusivity. For 10 data sets which contain abnormal vari-
ations in a partial period of time, the only fractions of data
showing steady periodicity are used for the analysis. Deter-
mination of the apparent thermal diffusivity requires another
data set measured at a different depth, which is not avail-
able in the monitoring stations of NGMN. Thus, in spite of
a crude analogy, the ground surface temperature measured
at the nearest KMA station was inevitably used as an alter-
native. As would be expected, the discrepancy should lead
to results with varying degrees of errors depending on the
distance between the monitoring well and the nearest KMA
station. The apparent thermal diffusivity is determined by
the same procedure as the analysis of KMA data. In spite of
the prior elimination of data with abnormal temperature
measurements, the estimated results need a further refine-
ment since they are flawed by the use of KMA data as an
alternative to the surface ground temperature and some of
data sets still contain less reliable measurements. Thus, in
order to enhance quality of the analysis, some of data sets
are additionally discarded if the correlation coefficient is
262 Min-Ho Koo and Yoonho Song
less than 0.8 in the linear regression analysis of two tem-
perature time series to obtain the amplitude ratio. Finally,
67 data sets, which comprise 53 alluvial wells and 14 bed-
rock wells, are selected and used for estimating the apparent
thermal diffusivity.
Estimates of the phase delay and the amplitude decay
determined for 67 data sets are shown in Figure 9a where
the solid line represents the theoretical relationship. In con-
trast to the results of KMA temperature data as given in
Figure 5, many of the estimates highly deviate from the the-
oretical curve, falling mostly on the zone below the theo-
retical curve due to underestimation of the phase delay or
the amplitude decay. The discrepancy indicates that the
nonconductive heat transfer prevails over conduction in
groundwater of the wells. Figure 9b shows the apparent
thermal diffusivities estimated by the phase and amplitude
equations. In the case of alluvial wells (open circles), some of
the estimates are within the range of the representative values
for soils and rocks, while others are not. On the contrary, all
of the estimates for bedrock wells ranging between 2.2 and
58 mm2/sec are much higher than the representative values.
Consequently, the results suggested that the use of a peri-
odic temperature time series to determine the thermal dif-
fusivity should be highly limited when applied to the
NGMN data, while it produced fairly reliable estimates for
the KMA data. The inconsistency may be attributed to two
distinctive features of the KMA and the NGMN data. First,
the KMA data was measured at shallow depths in the
vadose zone, while the NGMN data was measured at
depths below the water table in the saturated zone. It is well
known that the influence of groundwater flow plays a sig-
nificant role on the temperature distribution of the subsur-
face. It also can disturb the patterns of periodic variations
observed in the shallow underground. Thus, the NGMN
data should be influenced by the convective heat transfer
due to groundwater flow. Secondly, there is a great differ-
ence in the diameter of KMA boreholes and MGMN wells.
For a large diameter well, thermal stability of the water col-
umn within the well could be a great concern in analyzing
Fig. 9. Comparisons of (a) estimated
values of the phase delay and the
amplitude damping with the theoreti-
cal curve (solid line) and (b) the ther-
mal diffusivities obtained from the
phase and amplitude equations.
groundwater temperature. When the analysis specifically
requires natural subsurface temperature undisturbed by the
well, the measured temperature should represent the tem-
perature of the surrounding medium adjacent to the well.
This is likely to occur when there is no free convection of
water within the well.
Krige (1939) presented the following equation to calcu-
late the critical thermal gradient of a fluid-filled column
required for the onset of free convection;
gaT Cνα
Gc = --------- + ----------4- (7)
cp gar
where g is the acceleration due to gravity, a is the volume
coefficient of thermal expansion, T is the absolute temper-
ature, cp is the specific heat, C is a constant which has the
value 216 in cgs units, ν is the kinetic viscosity, α is the ther-
mal diffusivity and r is the radius of the fluid-filled column.
As shown in the equation, thermal stability of the water in
boreholes is primarily associated with the borehole diameter.
Figure 10 shows the critical thermal gradients for water and
air as a function of well radius, calculated by Eq. (7) using
the data given in Table 1. Air has higher values of the critical
thermal gradient than water due to higher values of ν and α.
For the 200 mm diameter of NGMN wells, the critical ther-
mal gradient is calculated to be 0.027 °C/m for air and
0.00034 °C/m for water at 15 °C around which temperature
of most groundwater in Korea falls on. Therefore, convec-
tion of water can easily occur in NGMN wells, since the
geothermal gradient generally ranges 0.01-0.03 °C/m in
Korea. Vertical mixing of groundwater in the well due to
free convection could be indirectly inferred from Figure 11
showing that the groundwater temperature is generally
higher in the bedrock wells than in the alluvial wells,
although the difference of measurement depths is not great.
Convection of air also can occur within the well, especially
at shallow depths below the ground surface, since the sub-
surface near the ground surface can have a strongly positive
geothermal gradient in winter.
Thus, as in the case of NGMN, either convective heat
 Estimating apparent thermal diffusivity using temperature time series
Fig. 10. Variations of the critical thermal gradient for water and air
with well radius calculated by the Krige’s equation.
Table 1. Constants used for calculating the critical thermal gradient
of water and air at 15 °C
Fluid a (°C-1) T (K) c (ergs/g °C) ν (cm2/s) α (cm2/s)
Water 1.50E-04 288 4.19E+07 1.14E-02 1.44E-03
Air 3.47E-03 288 1.01E+07 1.47E-01 1.87E-01
transport by groundwater flow or free convection of water
and air within large diameter wells could invalidate the
availability of periodic temperature data to determine the
apparent thermal diffusivity. It is not possible to quantita-
tively evaluate their effects on estimates of the apparent
thermal diffusivity calculated by the heat conduction model.
However, the results of this study clearly demonstrate that
the apparent thermal diffusivity should be overestimated, if
it is calculated from groundwater temperature data mea-
sured in a large diameter well. The overestimation can be
Fig. 11. Comparison of mean groundwater temperatures of alluvial
and bedrock wells.
263
attributed to perturbation of the conductive heat transport
system by free convection of air and water in the well as
well as convective heat transport by groundwater flow.
4. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Temperature time series data measured in boreholes can
be effectively used for estimating the apparent thermal dif-
fusivity based on the heat conduction equation. In this
paper, two temperature data sets, shallow ground tempera-
tures of KMA and groundwater temperatures of NGMN,
were analyzed to estimate the apparent thermal diffusivity.
The KMA temperature data were greatly fitted to the heat
conduction model illustrating the phase delay and the
amplitude decay coincident with their theoretical relation-
ship. Thus, it is likely that the annual thermal signal of the
ground surface in KMA stations should be propagated into
the ground mainly by conduction. Some of the data near the
ground surface, however, showed perturbation of the con-
ductive heat transfer due to the effects of latent heat asso-
ciated with freezing and thawing of water in the ground. As
discussed earlier, the vadose zone undergoes temporal vari-
ation of hydrothermal properties of the ground due to
change of the water content. Koo and Kim (2008) presented
a numerical model that could estimate seasonal variation of
the vertical water flux as well as the thermal diffusivity
using temperature data. The suggested model, as compared
to the conventional heat conduction model, can elucidate
the hydrothermal processes occurring in the vadose zone
with better precision.
In contrast to the KMA data, the NGMN temperature
data were not fitted to the heat conduction model with the
phase delay and the amplitude decay highly deviated from
their theoretical relationship. Furthermore, the estimated
apparent thermal diffusivities were unacceptably high as
compared to the representative values of soils and rocks.
Inconsistency of the KMA and NGMN data could be attrib-
uted to the distinctive differences of two data sets in the
depth of measurements and the diameter of wells. The
KMA data were measured from small diameter boreholes
within the vadose zone, while the NGMN data were mea-
sured in groundwater of large diameter wells. Consideration
of these differences leads to presumption that overestima-
tion of the apparent thermal diffusivity illustrated in the
NGMN data could be associated with the convective heat
transport by groundwater flow and free convection occurring
possibly within large diameter wells. These observations
impose a limitation on the use of groundwater temperature
data, especially measured in large diameter wells, to esti-
mate the apparent thermal diffusivity of the subsurface
medium. Ignoring the effects of convection on the thermal
system around the well could result in erroneous interpre-
tations of the apparent thermal diffusivity. Thus, it would be
challenging to develop a numerical model to quantitatively
264 Min-Ho Koo and Yoonho Song
analyze the effects of the convective heat transfer on the
estimates of the apparent thermal diffusivity. The authors are
currently working on laboratory experiments of undisturbed
soils collected from the KMA stations to investigate the effects
of porosity, water content, grain size distribution and organic
content on the thermal diffusivity. This research is expected
to reveal how the estimated apparent thermal diffusivity var-
ies in dependent upon the physical properties of soils.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: This study was financially supported by
the Korea Energy Management Corporation (KEMCO). The authors
wish to thank Dr. Myoung-Seok Suh at Kongju National University
and In-Ok Kang in KOWACO for providing data of this work.
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Manuscript received April 26, 2008
Manuscript accepted July 9, 2008