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albedo

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Albedo is the fraction of sunlight that a surface reflects back into space, measured on a scale from 0 (absorbs all light) to 1 (reflects all light). It matters because changes in albedo affect how much heat Earth's surfaces absorb or reflect, which influences climate—for example, Greenland's albedo has decreased significantly in recent years, meaning it now absorbs more sunlight and less ice reflects it back.

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Image: Ceres 2004 clear sky albedo.png

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Commons category: Albedo

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25 sections

Contents

Terrestrial albedo
White-sky, black-sky, and blue-sky albedo
Changes to albedo due to human activities
Examples of terrestrial albedo effects
Illumination
Insolation effects
Climate and weather
Albedo–temperature feedback
Snow
Small-scale effects
Solar photovoltaic effects
Trees
Water
Clouds
Aerosol effects
Black carbon
Astronomical albedo
Optical or visual albedo
Radar albedo
Radar albedos of Solar System objects
Relationship to surface [[bulk density]]
History
See also
References
External links

thumb|Albedo change in Greenland: The map shows the difference between the amount of sunlight [[Greenland reflected in the summer of 2011 versus the amount it reflected between 2000 and 2006. Some areas reflect close to 20 percent less light than a decade ago.]] Albedo ( ; ) is the fraction of sunlight that is diffusely reflected by a body. It is measured on a scale from 0 (corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation) to 1 (corresponding to a body that reflects all incident radiation). Surface albedo is defined as the ratio of radiosity Je to the irradiance Ee (flux per unit area) received by a surface. The proportion reflected is not only determined by properties of the surface itself, but also by the spectral and angular distribution of solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface. These factors vary with atmospheric composition, geographic location, and time (see position of the Sun).

While directional-hemispherical reflectance factor is calculated for a single angle of incidence (i.e., for a given position of the Sun), albedo is the directional integration of reflectance over all solar angles in a given period. The temporal resolution may range from seconds (as obtained from flux measurements) to daily, monthly, or annual averages.