Surface Properties and Interactions: Coupling the Land and Atmosphere within the ARM Program

It is well known that the exchange of heat and moisture between the surface and atmosphere plays a key role in the earth’s climate system (e.g., Randall et al. 2007). Science questions related to land–atmosphere interactions have remained an active topic of research, both inside and outside of the ARM Program, for a considerable period of time (e.g., Betts et al. 1996; Betts 2003, 2004; Dirmeyer et al. 2006; Betts 2009; Santanello et al. 2009; Betts and Silva Dias 2010). Given the sustained interest by the scientific community in regards to the impacts of land–atmosphere interactions on both the climate and the hydrologic cycle, this focus is likely to remain for the foreseeable future.