Surface parameter digital maps of vegetation, soil, and topography are obtained for Rondonia, Brazil, covering the 5x5^o region 8-13^oS, 65-60^oW. Numerical maps of the natural landscape structure have been achieved by digitizing existing 1:1,000,000 maps. Satellite data give information about the most recent modifications of the surface due to human activities. This mapping work is the first step of a mesoscale meteorological modeling program.

Vegetation	Soil	Altitude	Altveg_LAND
Clay	Sand	Silt	Classif

Santos Alvalá,R.C., J. C. Calvet, G. Jaubert, J. Noilhan, I. R. Wright, 1996: Mapping surface parameters for mesoscale modeling in forested and deforested South-Western Amazonia. Note de Centre, No. 40, Janvier 1996, Centre National de Recherches Meteorologiques - CNRM, METEO FRANCE, TOULOUSE CEDEX, France.

Calvet, J.C., Regina C. Santos Alvalá, Genevieve Jaubert, Christine Delire, Carlos A. Nobre, Ivan Wright and Joel Noilhan, 1996: Mapping surface parameters for mesoscale modeling in forested and deforested South-Western Amazonia. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 78, No. 3, March 1997.

Acknowledgements

This work was performed in the framework of a research program (CABARE) supported by the European Union (CEC Environment Program Project PL-931938, Contract EV5V-CT94-0456). The authors would like to thank INPE for providing the satellite data, the staff of IBGE in Rio de Janeiro for supplying the printed maps, and Mr J. Chaigneau for technical assistance during the digitizing process.