Understanding land-atmosphere interactions across a range of spatial and temporal scales

There is an increasing awareness of land-atmosphere interactions (L-AI) in modulating local phenomena as well as weather and climate variability at regional scales. As a result, the increasing attention that L-AI processes are receiving nowadays is not surprising. From an observational point of view, the closure of the surface energy balance (SEB) remains the fundamental process to be understood in land-atmosphere interactions (L-AI). The net radiation at the surface is always larger than the sensible heat, latent heat, and ground heat flux. Typical residuals range from 0% to 30% and mainly take place during the day. Over homogeneous and non-vegetated surfaces, the SEB is closer to being in balance, but patchy land conditions enhance the disagreement. Transferring the knowledge and understanding of L-AI processes to weather and climate models occupied the second part of the workshop.