Does an alternating current have surface charges associated with the current charges?
From Gauss' law we get the fact that there is no field inside a closed conductor. this puts the unbalanced charges on the surface of the wire in response to the local charge-imbalance on that wire.
In large conductors the skin effect puts most of the alternating current near the surface of the wire, but that's a magnetic effect.

As alternating current passes along a wire:

A wire long enough to present even a half wave of AC is not a mere wire anymore, it's now a transmission line, and new emergant behaviours come from the wave properties of signals in wires.

Is this view correct?

The picture is a nonsense.  but see Gauss' law.

This would mean there are two groups of charges.

Not really, it's all one pool of conduction band electrons, if only the surface electrons carried the charge then the bulk of the wire would not conduct current.
as the potential in the wire increases caused by current flowing in the bulk of the wire charges are pushed to the surface of the wire
the distance traveled by most charges in a wire carrying domestic AC is just a fraction of a millimeter before the current reverses, in an antenna carrying radio frequency it's even less.
Also note that potential and current need not be synchronised.

Experimentally: Is there a strong electric field associated with each half wave even with a low resistance wire?

A strong external field? Yes, that's how non-contact voltage detectors work.  also electrostatic loudspeakers etc. Internally, no, See Gauss's law.