The Energy Balance

The main components of the energy balance are net radiation, latent heat flux (LE), sensible heat flux (H), and soil heat flux (G). These can be manipulated through changes in net radiation, LE, H, or G. The relative importance of the components depends mainly on the water availability for evaporation. The extreme cases will be the humid environment (LE approaches Rn) and the desert environment (Rn is partitioned between H and G). Agricultural systems capture only a small fraction of incoming solar energy while the rest is spent in evaporation and heating of the soils and the atmosphere.