Scaling of land‐atmosphere interactions: An atmospheric modelling perspective

Abstract Investigations of the impact of the ground surface on energy and mass fluxes in the atmosphere as well as on the dynamic response of the atmosphere at different scales are reviewed to emphasize the requirements for hydrological schemes for atmospheric models. Based on these investigations, a discussion on the scaling of the most important land processes and characteristics, from an atmospheric modelling perspective, is provided. It appears that because of the strong, non‐linear response of the atmosphere to the spatial variability of land‐surface characteristics, the scaling of hydrological processes and parameters is not linear. This implies that appropriate hydrological schemes for atmospheric models need to provide higher statistical moments and characteristic length scales of the spatial distribution of water availability for evapotranspiration.