Convective currents between open water and vegetation due to solar radiation

Convective currents between open water and vegetation, due to solar radiation are investigated numerically. The layer, representing the vegetation, covers half of the tank and contains an array of rigid circular cylinders with porosity φ.  The velocity of both the warm and the cold current is decreased with decreasing porosity. Both radiation models reproduce the observed data. The RTE model has a smoother temperature and velocity development due to the emission term in the equation. RTE simulates field conditions better, because it engulfs emission, absorption and scattering terms. It is CPU sensitive. Initially, the currents are inertia dominated and their velocity increases linear with time, while after a specific time instinct they become drag dominated and their velocity remains almost constant.