The latent heat flux is the power per square metre that the surface loses by evaporation: the evaporation rate , in , times the latent heat of vaporisation . The sensible heat flux is the power per square metre that the surface passes to the air by conduction and turbulence, warming it. Both are counted positive upwards. Their ratio is the Bowen ratio.
উদাহরণ
Example 27.13 (The water cycle as an energy flux)
The global water cycle brings cubic kilometres of rain and snow to the ocean every year and to the land: spread over the Earth’s , per year, which releases by Proposition 27.12. The reanalysis rains a day, a year, . Both are close to the assessed latent heat flux of , whose uncertainty range is : over the years, the water that evaporates comes down again, and the latent heat taken from the surface is all given to the air.