Albedo+2010

__**Albedo/ The Albedo Effect**__ By Hannah Sikand

What is Albedo? In simple terms, "albedo" is the surface reflectivity of the sun's radiation. Also defined as the fraction of the incident sunlight that is reflected. The word albedo comes from the latin word "albus" meaning 'white'-- something that is completely white(reflective), has an albedo of 1, and something that is completely black, has an albedo of zero.

Different features of the earth have different albedos- for example The simple albedo of the Earth is measured at 0.367. Land and Ocean typically have an albedo ranging from 0.1- 0.4, and absorb more than they reflect. While ice, snow, and clouds have a high albedo, ranging from 0.7 - 0.9. reflecting more than they absorb.

How does this relate to climate change? Albedo affects climate change because it is the amount of radiation (from the sun) that is absorbed by the planet. Depending on where the light and radation hit, makes the difference in strength. Some of this is more reflected than other radition/light because of the ground surface below- listed abover are the albedos of different land surfaces. In the picture below, you can see that land absorbs more heat, while ice reflects more.

The idea of this can be added with that of "Global Dimming", which is the idea that we're getting less and less sunlight through all the atmospheric gases, etc. Global dimming, the greenhouse effect and the albedo effect all work together to prove the climate changes. The greenhouse effect traps heat in the atmostpheric gasses, global dimming shows how much sunlight is coming through, and the albedo effect shows what is reflected back into space to sart the process all over again.

All these elements together create a cycle that that can either keep the world constant, or raise the temeratures, yet again.

This image displays the general idea of albedo:

Picture From []

Sources: [] [] [|http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/earth/albedo-of-the-earth/][|__http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ipy07.sci.ess.watcyc.albedo/__]