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Presents measurements of the energy balance (radiation, sensible heat flux, evaporation) from a sub-arctic hillside in northern Finland for a summer season. Comparisons are also made with a nearby wetland site. The hillslope measurements show an equal partition of the radiant energy into sensible and latent heat flux. The evaporative ratio of just over one half was remarkably constant throughout the season, despite very large day-to-day and diurnal variations of temperature, humidity deficit and radiation input. This conservative behaviour of the evaporation was caused by a strong rise in effective surface resistance to evaporation with increasing vapour pressure deficit. This suggests a strong physiological control on the evaporation, with stomata closing at times of high evaporative demand. There was no obvious impact of soil-water stress on the evaporation. However, a comparison with the evaporation measured at a nearby mire site in 1997 suggests that the mire has a significantly lower surface resistance, even when the impact of a significantly lower humidity deficit in the earlier year is taken into account. The measurements are used to test, off-line, the performance of MOSES (Meteorological Office Surface Exchange Scheme), a simple, but comprehensive, land surface model. The sensitivity of the energy exchanges to the thermal properties of the top soil layer (a surrogate for the upper soil/vegetation layer) is investigated with the use of the model. It is found that the evaporation is insensitive to these properties; they do, however, influence the partition of energy between the sensible heat flux and the ground heat flux (and hence the soil temperatures). It is suggested that the model needs to represent the thermal properties of the canopy more realistically.