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Albedo

Albedo is the fraction of solar energy (shortwave radiation) reflected from the earth back into space.  Where reflectivity is:

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• open snow (includes snow on low vegetation) changes with age but is broadly ~0.85 for fresh snow to ~0.50 for old snow.  
• forest snow (snow beneath high vegetation) depends on vegetation type.  It is broadly ~0.3 just after a heavy snowfall  decreasing to ~0.2 after a few days due to snowmelt (for sufficiently warm temperatures) or wind drift (for cold temperatures).
• ice depends on snow cover but varies between ~0.7 with snow and ~0.4 without snow.
• open water, lakes and sea is <0.1

Considerations

It is important to consider the effects of any day-to-day differences in albedo values between those deriving from actual conditions and those used in model forecasts.  

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