ENERGY BALANCE OVER PRAIRIE GRASS

Abstract
The energy balance over prairie grass was computed for four cloudless days using the Bowen ratio and the Fourier heat conduction equation. For the 3 advection-free days evaporation accounted for an average of 55% of daytime net radiation. Turbulent flux of heat and soil heat flux shared the remaining portion almost equally. Hourly evaporation can be related to net radiation by the empirical equation: E = 1.2 + 0.75 R cal cm−2 hr−1, where E is the evaporative flux and R the net radiation. The patterns of the soil heat flux was fairly steady from day to day. The relation between hourly flux of sensible heat and soil heat flux was linear on a daily basis. The linearity of the two fluxes when the hourly value for the whole period of investigation was pooled was poor. The proportion of net radiation used as latent flux and sensible flux showed large variability under advection conditions.