Convective cooling under the four-thirds heat-transfer law ($\theta (t)=[{\theta }_0^{-1/3}+Kt/3{]}^{-3}$)

A well-mixed layer of depth $h$ losing heat through an unstable cold upper boundary has bulk excess temperature $\theta =T-T_0$. With four-thirds convective heat-transfer law flux $q=Ck[g\beta /(\nu \kappa ){]}^{1/3}{\theta }^{4/3}$, its heat capacity per area is $kh/\kappa$. Thus $\dot{\theta }=-K{\theta }^{4/3}$ with $K=C\kappa [g\beta /(\nu \kappa ){]}^{1/3}/h$, giving the displayed cooling law. It excludes the initial conductive transient and the late low-Rayleigh conduction regime.