It is generally expected that the temperature in the air will determine the temperature of the soil. Well, this is not always the case. You see, lots of things affect the temperature of the soil. This include the presence of plants and animals, type of soil, wind speed above the soil, and many more things. We can say that the relationship between air temperature and soil temperature is complex.
Scientists have tried various methods to discover the exact nature of the relationship between air and soil temperature. A recently published paper (here) took a different approach to study the relationship between those two temperatures. Their approach is called multifractal analysis. A fractal is a picture that has contains an image of itself. A common example is a leave. As you zoom in closer on the leaf, you begin to see small images of the same leaf. Yes, that is a fractal.
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| Multifractality in air and soil temperature |
The authors looked for fractal structures within both air and soil temperatures. The authors found that both temperatures show multifractal nature. However, air temperature is more multifractal than soil temperature. They also found that locations close to the ocean are more multifractal than locations far from the ocean. The structures found within both soil and air temperatures can be used to better understand their relationships.
Reference
Ogunjo S. T., Fuwape I. A. Rabiu A. B. and Oluyamo S. S (2021) "Multifractal analysis of air and soil temperatures" Chaos 31, 033110 https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0029658
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