Partitioning of net available energy into latent heat flux ( Q le ), sensible heat flux ( Q H ) is considered critical to hydrological cycle and water management. In this study, the eddy covariance technique was utilized to determine the sources of variation in net radiation and implications for corrections of the surface energy fluxes over a wheat crop along Indo-Gangetic Plains over the period 1 January 2015 to 30 April 2015. We found that the variation in net radiation was dependent on the diurnal variation in four radiation components (upwelling shortwave radiation, downwelling shortwave radiation, upwelling longwave radiation, and downwelling longwave radiation). Furthermore, the relationship of surface energy fluxes with different meteorological, soil, satellite-based parameters was determined using Pearson’s correlation analysis (significant at 0.05 level). Q le was the main consumer of the available energy during the active growth period and was dominantly controlled by available net radiation. Out of all the factors under study, soil water content at a depth of 7.5 cm least affected Q le with an insignificant correlation of about 0.23 on daily basis, while leaf area index was correlated with a significant correlation of 0.48. Sun-induced fluorescence dataset was also included as a global proxy for vegetation vigor and gross primary productivity (GPP) and has a positive and negative correlation with Q le (0.26, p < 0.05) and Q H (− 0.32, p < 0.05), respectively.