Sensible heat

From Glossary of Meteorology



sensible heat

A somewhat archaic term that is typically the outcome of heating a surface without evaporating water from it.

Sensible heat per unit mass can be roughly identified with specific enthalpy of unsaturated air, that is, approximately cpdT, where cpd is the specific heat of dry air at constant pressure and T is temperature. Sensible heat is often compared with latent heat, which is the difference between the enthalpy of water vapor and that of liquid water.


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