Modeling and observing land-surface-atmosphere interactions on large scales

The land surface and atmosphere exchange fluxes of radiation, heat, mass (water and carbon dioxide), momentum and trace constituents over a wide range of time and space scales. These are reviewed in the context of modeling studies, where it has been shown that the vegetation on the Earth's land surface may have a significant influence on the continental climates, and large-scale field experiments, which have been used to obtain a deeper understanding of the processes controlling these exchanges and to explore means of quantifying them using satellite based remote-sensing. It is anticipated that over the next few years, the combination of global models (general circulation models combined with biosphere models) and global data sets (provided by satellites and other synoptic techniques) will yield crucial information on the Earth System and its sensitivity to perturbation.