THE POTENTIAL FOR ESTIMATING REGIONAL SENSIBLE HEAT-FLUX FROM CONVECTIVE BOUNDARY-LAYER GROWTH

It is shown how a simple model, which has been used successfully by many authors to describe the growth of the convective mixed layer, can, in theory, be used in reverse to give an estimate of regional sensible heat flux. The reversed model is tested using a dataset of frequent radiosonde ascents and measured surface sensible heat flux. The results of the comparison are encouraging; improved methods, involving continuous monitoring of boundary layer height and temperature, will give better results.