The phrase "arid surface" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a dry, barren area, often in the context of geography, climate, or environmental conditions.
Example: "The arid surface of the desert stretched for miles, devoid of any vegetation."
Alternatives: "dry terrain" or "barren ground".
All around the arid surface were rocks that scientists suspected once held an ancient lake.
In photographs taken by once-secret American surveillance satellites, traces of the buried past show through the arid surface of the Middle East like pentimento.
Aging but still on the go, climbing in and around craters, tapping into the mysteries of strangely cracked rocks, the two roving vehicles Spirit and Opportunity have explored Mars about three times as long as originally scheduled and keep finding evidence of past liquid water shaping the now arid surface.
Vast quantities of ice may lurk just beneath the arid surface of Mars, researchers report in three papers to appear in the 31 May issue of Science.
Its main source of water--groundwater extracted from beneath the arid surface--was threatened with depletion.
Its near-three-hour running time mirrors the miniseries, yet arid patches surface throughout.
The arid, rough surfaces of Woodman's earthenware give exploring fingers scant welcome.
The study is part of the Semi-Arid Land Surface Atmosphere (SALSA) program.
A scanning, volume-imaging Raman lidar was used in August 1997 to map the water vapor and latent energy flux fields in southern Arizona in support of the (Semi-Arid Land Surface Atmosphere) SALSA program.
The need to see Earth from a distance with your own eyes, whatever the cost, hints at an interior life as arid as the surface of the moon.
The Committee on Health and Evnironmental Effects of Increased Coal Utilization identified six critical environmental issues which are of concern: coal mine worker health and safety, reclamation of arid lands from surface mining, the health effects of coal combustion products, toxic trace elements in coal combustion wastes, acid fallout, and global effects of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
