B2. Profiles Database PROFILS.DAT
Other Databases: SOILS.DAT, PLANTS.DAT, SOURCES.DAT
This file is directly linked to the SOILS.DAT file described in the section before.
Using PROFILS.DAT you can define the different vertical columns of soil material you want to use in your model.
You need to specify a material for each grid box of the soil model including the uppermost box which
is the actual surface of this profile.
As mentioned in the overview, PROFILES.DAT and SOILS.DAT together form a relational database. SOILS.DAT defines the soil materials available and PROFILES.DAT defines vertical sandwiches consisting of these materials. Both are linked with the IDs given in SOILS.DAT.
This is an example for a PROFILES.DAT file :
00: ID -.015 .025 .035 .045 .055 0.07 0.09 0.15 0.25 0.35 0.45 0.75 1.25 1.75 _z0__ _a__ _em_Name
01: 0 le le le le le le le le le le le le le le 0.015 0.00 0.98 Unsealed
02: s ab ab ab ab ab ab ab ab ab le le le le le 0.010 0.20 0.90 Asphalt
03: p zb zb zb zb sd le le le le le le le le le 0.010 0.40 0.90 Pavement
04: l le le le le le le le le le le le le le le 0.015 0.00 0.98 Loamy Soil
05: sd sd sd sd sd sd le le le le le le le le le 0.050 0.30 0.90 Sandy Soil
06: w ww ww ww ww ww ww ww ww ww ww ww ww ww ww 0.010 0.00 0.96 Deep Water
What do the lines and columns mean?
The first line is not interpreted by ENVI-met, but it shows where the columns must begin according to the format specifications.
The columns labeled "-.015" to "-1.75" are the vertical grid boxes of the soil model.
The vertical spacing is changing from small boxes near the surface to larger boxes in the deeper soil layers. The spacing of the soil model is fixed and cannot be changed by the user. The z-values refer to the vertical center of each grid box.
The entries for each grid box are the soil IDs defined in SOILS.DAT. If you use an undefined ID, ENVI-met will prompt an error message and use the first soil type defined in SOILS.DAT instead.
There are three additional columns referring to the first grid box (the surface):
z0 is the roughness length of the surface in [m],
a is the short-wave albedo of the surface (see remark here) and
em is the longwave emissivity of the surface.
Data such as roughness length, albedo and emissivity refer to the soil used for the uppermost soil layer.
Finally, in the first column there is again an ID. This two-digit ID now links the profile definitions in this file with the your actual area input file. More information is given in the description of the area input file !
About Water Bodies...
Special conditions apply to water bodies: Although it is technically possible to construct a shallow pool by setting only the uppermost grids to "water", water should only be used as a complete column !
ENVI-met is not able to simulate the energy balance and the temperature of the bottom of the pool, only the heating of the water due to absorption of shortwave radiation is calculated !
If you want to simulate a shallow water, most of the heating effects during the day comes from the sunlit parts of the ground which warms up the water in contact. Without this additional energy balance, the temperature development is under-estimated.
Also, the effect of the water on the soil moisture is not included in the recent version.
Important to know...
Some remarks about ENVI-Eddi and PROFILES.DAT
When you start the ENVI-Eddi Editor for Area-Input files, the editor looks for the PROFIL.DAT file in the \input directory.
If the file is found, all IDs in the file are loaded into the drop-down list of the editor.
This makes the editing process much easier because you can be sure, that every profile ID used in your area input file is present in the PROFIL.DAT file.
In addition, the editor displays the given name of the profile under the mouse cursor.
Anyway, you still can enter your own IDs in the editor in case you don't have a PROFIL.DAT file available or you want to add new profiles later on.