Uses and interpretation of the 'Bowen Ratio' ($B_o=SH/LE$)

Question

The Bowen Ratio is the ratio of sensible heat flux to latent heat flux, so presumably it gives some information about the relative importance of these processes. But it is not clear how this information can be used to make inference about a system (e.g. the land-air interface of a corn field).

What are some uses of the Bowen Ratio?

What are typical values, and what is the range of meaningful values (e.g. under what conditions does $B_o\to\pm \infty$?)

Answer 1

I haven't seen it for years, but I think it was just a simple assertion to allow some primitive models to be built without solving the microphysics and biology of evaporation/trnaspiration. I think typical values were about a half. One could presumably go one step further and obtain empirical measurements and build those into models.