The definitive version is available at: http://www.agu.org/journals/wr/The eddy covariance technique for measuring surface fluxes is often not affordable outside experimental research institutes. Therefore, knowledge of the performance of alternative methods for determining surface fluxes is valuable. The performance of surface renewal (SR) analysis and the flux-variance (FV) method for estimating sensible heat flux has been evaluated in an experiment carried out over a heterogeneous canopy (olive orchard, 50% ground cover) at a semiarid climate in a windy area. Measurements were made at a single level close to the canopy top. SR analysis was accurate under both stable and unstable conditions. The FV method also showed a good performance under unstable conditions, but it was uncertain near neutral conditions and was not applicable under stable conditions.This work was supported under projects REN2001/CLI1630 and CAO-01-AR-04, and grants from the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia of Spain, Generalitat de Catalunya and the University of Lleida.Peer reviewed