Processes contributing to the heat anomaly budget of the upper ocean mixed layer are examined over the North Atlantic in summer season on the basis of the inversion of the sea temperature profiles. The net advection velocity, the subgrid heat diffusivity, and the surface heat flux feedback are estimated. Two inversion strategies are pursued, with and without the explicit parameterization of the entrainment heat flux into the upper mixed layer. The regression estimator is employed for the inversion. The data involved are the compilation of the Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set sea surface temperature (SST) and World Ocean Database 2001 temperature profiles over a 2¿ latitude ¿ 3¿ longitude grid for sequential 10-day intervals in June--September during 1965--2000. The inversion is constrained by the autocorrelation of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction net air-sea heat flux. The regression estimator allows for prediction of up to 60--70% of the SST anomaly value 10 days in advance by using the regressions on the SST anomalies lagged by two time steps. The SST anomaly transport over the North Atlantic agrees broadly with the known features of the surface circulation, although the quantitative details of the SST anomaly propagation obtained in this inversion have not previously been available. The heat anomaly that originates in the Gulf Stream region near the western boundary either moves northeastward with speed of up to 0.12 m s-1 downstream of the North Atlantic Current and the North Atlantic Drift Current or it turns southeastward and then propagates southwestward along the broad subtropical recirculation; in the subtropics the westward propagation is seemingly reinforced by the effects of the planetary waves. The air-sea feedback is negative with the feedback factor having the average value of 39 W m-2 K-1 with substantial variations throughout the North Atlantic. The entrainment rate is generally about 0.15 m d-1; relatively rapid deepening of the mixed layer by more than 2 ¿ 10-6 m s-1 occurs near the Gulf Stream.