An experiment was carried out in the Campos dos Goytacazes County, RJ, in a 5 hectares sugar cane crop area at the Usina Santa Cruz (Lat. 21° 43' 21.8'' S e Log. 41° 24' 26.1'' W). Net solar radiation (Rn), heat flow in the soil (G), air temperature gradient (Tar), relative humidity (UR) and wind velocity(V) data were collected. Instruments were installed at 0.40 and 2.40m above the canopy and moved up with crop growth. Data from four periods were analyzed for the following stages: one in the tillering (109 DAP - days after planting), two during the development of sprouts (197 and 260 DAP) and one in the maturation (339 DAP). Latent heat flux (LE) was estimated by Penman e Monteith equation. Sensible heat flux (H) was obtained from balance equation residual. The results indicate that the relation LE/Rn presented increasing values with leaf area index (LAI), with a mean value equal to 0.79 for a LAI between 2.0 and 3.0; 0.87 for a LAI between 5.0 and 6.0: 0,99 for LAI between 7.0 and 8.0 and 1.23 for LAI between 8.0 and 9.0. The angular coefficient of the linear regression between Rn and G presented values 0.091, 0.071 and 0.040, mean daily Potential Evapotranspiration - PE values of 5.12 mm, 6.17 mm, 5.04 mm and 4.62 mm for the four days respectively.
Energy balance; soil heat flux; water-vapor flux; sugarcane
