Abstract

With a view to study the fluctuations of soil temperature, particularly under rain-fed conditions, soil thermographs were installed at the Central Agricultural Meteorological Observatory, in field No. 61, Central Farm, Coimbatore in 1951 and data on the soil temperature at depths of 3", 6" and 12" are being collected since then. The soil in the observatory is of a red-brown sandy loam type, with calcareous substrata, even at 18" depth and moderately alkaline. The purpose of the present preliminary study is to see how far the meteorological elements like rainfall, maximum tempera- ture, mean air temperature, duration of bright sunshine and relative humidity affect the soil temperatures at different depths. The tentative inferences drawn are presented in this paper.

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