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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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- darker colours indicate the greater radiation absorption qualities of vegetation
- lighter colours indicate areas of high reflectivity (snow over mountains and Russia, and from the sands of the Sahara),
- the sea is shown blue with high absorption because it reflects back very little solar radiation. Solar noon is assumed when assigning model albedo values and so is probably an under-estimate of the true albedo for most of the time in daylight.
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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