A new semiempirical model to describe the bidirectional reflectance of arbitrary natural surfaces using only three parameters has been developed. This model successfully accounts for the observed variability of reflectance measurements in laboratory and field conditions, ranging from bare soil to full canopy cover, in both the visible and the near-infrared bands. Coupled with a simple atmospheric radiation transfer model, this model has been inverted against actual NOAA/advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) data from several desert sites in northern Africa. This procedure allows the retrieval of surface properties and average amounts of atmospheric constituents (aerosol optical thickness and water vapor) for the duration of the measurement period. Further work is required to expand the usability of the coupled model to other locations and shorter periods of time, but the paper demonstrates the feasibility of inverting a coupled surface-atmosphere model against existing AVHRR data and documents the current limits of this approach. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1993