Turbulent Fluxes of Heat and Moisture at the Earth’s Land Surface: Importance, Controlling Parameters, and Conventional Measurement Techniques

Earth’s land surface and atmosphere host a constant exchange of energy, momentum, and water via the turbulent flux of sensible heat (H) and latent heat (LE). LE can be defined as the flux of heat from the Earth’s surface to the atmosphere that is associated with evaporation of water at the surface and H as the heat energy transferred between the surface and air along a temperature gradient. LE and evapotranspiration (ET) are used interchangeably, with the only difference being that the former is an energy flux expression of the latter.