GC: n

CT: As the name implies, thermal inertia represents the ability of a material to conduct and store heat, and in the context of planetary science, it is a measure of the subsurface’s ability to store heat during the day and reradiate it during the night. While compositional differences (ie, mineralogy) will have some effect, for a terrestrial planetary surface such as that of Mars, ‘I’ will depend predominantly on the physical properties of the near surface materials such as particle size, degree of induration (ie, cementation of grains), rock abundance, and exposure of bedrock (rocks will have a much higher thermal inertia than sand or dust – that is, it takes longer to heat rocks up during the day and to cool them off at night. For example, on a visit to the desert you may notice that sandy areas are much hotter at midday than adjacent rocks, and the sand cools off quickly after sunset whereas the rocks remain warm well into the evening).

S: http://nathaniel.putzig.com/research/ti_primer.html (last access: 22 December 2014)

N: 1. – thermal (adj): 1756, “having to do with hot springs,” from French thermal (Buffon), from Greek therme “heat, feverish heat,” from PIE gwher- “to heat, warm” (cognates: Latin fornax “an oven, kiln,” formus “warm,” Old English wearm). Sense of “having to do with heat” is first recorded 1837. The noun meaning “rising current of relatively warm air” is recorded from 1933.
– inertia (n): 1713, “that property of matter by virtue of which it retains its state of rest or of uniform rectilinear motion so long as no foreign cause changes that state” (Century Dictionary), introduced as a term in physics 17c. by German astronomer and physician Johann Kepler (1571-1630) as a special sense of Latin inertia “unskillfulness, ignorance; inactivity, idleness,” from iners (genitive inertis) “unskilled; inactive”. Also sometimes vis inertia “force of inertia.” Used in 1687 by Newton, writing in Modern Latin. The classical Latin sense of “apathy, passiveness, inactivity” is attested in English from 1822.
2. The degree of slowness with which the temperature of a body approaches that of its surroundings and which is dependent upon its absorptivity, its specific heat, its thermal conductivity, its dimensions, and other factors.
3. The tendency of a massive material to remain at a certain temperature.

S: 1. OED – https://bit.ly/2EkOPyE; https://bit.ly/2E8wROS (last access: 8 December 2018). 2. MW – http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thermal%20inertia (last access: 22 December 2014). 3. TERMIUMPLUS.

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CR: energy