albedo, definition of

The fraction of the total solar radiation incident on a body that is reflected by it. Albedo can be expressed as either a percentage or a fraction of 1.

• The Continuing Albedo Change Warms the Earth More Than Twice as Much as CO2
  All life on Earth (somehow) originates from the Sun's heat. But how much of the solar irradiation reaches us Earthlings?
• Let it snow!
  Snow – those marvelous little crystals of frozen water that drift down from the sky – in gentle silence, in the fury of an artic-like blizzard, or in any and everything in between...
• An Unexplored Source of Climate Change: Land Evapotranspiration Changes Over Time.
  This Model was created to encourage scientist to collect the information necessary to determine the Earth’s ET change over time, the area of “special parcels”  and plume size.  This Model shows that this data is necessary for our complete understanding...
• More on Cloud Reduction.  CO2 is innocent but Clouds are guilty.
  Statistical uncertainty in the CERES and Cloud data seem to retard acceptance of alternative GW theories.
• Why do Earth’s hemispheres look equally bright when viewed from space?
  For years, the brightness symmetry between hemispheres remained a mystery.
• Where have all the Clouds gone and why care?
  By Charles Blaisdell PhD ChE The earth’s cloud cover has long been an important puzzle in climate change.  Cloud cover has many types and varies significantly from year to year. …
• 2001-2019 Warming Driven By Increases In Absorbed Solar Radiation, Not Human Emissions
  Three new studies affirm the increase in absorbed solar radiation associated with decreased reflection by clouds (albedo) has been the “root cause” of the positive Earth Energy Imbalance and global warming since the early 2000s.
• Ocean Temperature Limit – Corrections and Part 4
  Current climate models parameterise clouds and atmospheric water is treated as a “Greenhouse Gas” when it exists in the atmosphere as gas, liquid and solid...
• Ocean Surface Temperature Limit-Part 3
  Climate models are based on a flawed assumption. Until they can replicate the actual physics of deep convection tightly linked to surface temperature rather than the naive parameterisation of clouds they will remain nothing more than extended weather...
• A pertinent climate question
  How much of a change in cloudiness would it take to account for the 0.53 W/m2 increase in TOA radiative forcing since 2003?

Related Tags: environment

The ratio of reflected to incident light; albedo can be expressed as either a percentage or a fraction of 1. Snow covered areas have a high albedo (up to about 0.9 or 90%) due to their white color, while vegetation has a low albedo (generally about 0.1 or 10%) due to the dark color and light absorbed for photosynthesis. Clouds have an intermediate albedo and are the most important contributor to the Earth's albedo. The Earth's aggregate albedo is approximately 0.3.

• The Continuing Albedo Change Warms the Earth More Than Twice as Much as CO2
  All life on Earth (somehow) originates from the Sun's heat. But how much of the solar irradiation reaches us Earthlings?
• Let it snow!
  Snow – those marvelous little crystals of frozen water that drift down from the sky – in gentle silence, in the fury of an artic-like blizzard, or in any and everything in between...
• An Unexplored Source of Climate Change: Land Evapotranspiration Changes Over Time.
  This Model was created to encourage scientist to collect the information necessary to determine the Earth’s ET change over time, the area of “special parcels”  and plume size.  This Model shows that this data is necessary for our complete understanding...
• More on Cloud Reduction.  CO2 is innocent but Clouds are guilty.
  Statistical uncertainty in the CERES and Cloud data seem to retard acceptance of alternative GW theories.
• Why do Earth’s hemispheres look equally bright when viewed from space?
  For years, the brightness symmetry between hemispheres remained a mystery.
• Where have all the Clouds gone and why care?
  By Charles Blaisdell PhD ChE The earth’s cloud cover has long been an important puzzle in climate change.  Cloud cover has many types and varies significantly from year to year. …
• 2001-2019 Warming Driven By Increases In Absorbed Solar Radiation, Not Human Emissions
  Three new studies affirm the increase in absorbed solar radiation associated with decreased reflection by clouds (albedo) has been the “root cause” of the positive Earth Energy Imbalance and global warming since the early 2000s.
• Ocean Temperature Limit – Corrections and Part 4
  Current climate models parameterise clouds and atmospheric water is treated as a “Greenhouse Gas” when it exists in the atmosphere as gas, liquid and solid...
• Ocean Surface Temperature Limit-Part 3
  Climate models are based on a flawed assumption. Until they can replicate the actual physics of deep convection tightly linked to surface temperature rather than the naive parameterisation of clouds they will remain nothing more than extended weather...
• A pertinent climate question
  How much of a change in cloudiness would it take to account for the 0.53 W/m2 increase in TOA radiative forcing since 2003?

Related Tags: climate change, global warming, environment