Albedos. Final report

Technical Report · Thu Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1993

OSTI ID:5945180

Hansen, F V

The albedo of the earth's surface varies dramatically from values of about 3 to 4 percent for calm bodies of water up to about 55 percent for gypsum sands. This rather broad range of reflected incoming solar radiation presents difficulties when attempting to define an average albedo for terrain over a large region from locally determined values. The patchwork, or checkerboard, appearance of the earth's surface as viewed from above is the result of various human activities, such as agriculture, the proliferation of urban sprawl, and road building. Each of these variable appearing surfaces will have individual albedos, rendering any attempt to determine an a real albedo almost an impossibility on the mesoscale. However, a vast data base exists for microscale applications for individual acreages, for example. A compilation of these data is presented.... Albedo, Solar radiation, Crops, Urban areas, Land uses.

• Research Organization: Army Research Lab., White Sands Missile Range, NM (United States)
• OSTI ID: 5945180
• Report Number(s): AD-A-268255/7/XAB; ARL-TR-57
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
EARTH PLANET
ALBEDO
SOLAR RADIATION
REFLECTION
CROPS
GYPSUM
MICROBALANCES
SAND
SOILS
SOLAR ENERGY
STATISTICAL DATA
SURFACES
URBAN AREAS
BALANCES
DATA
ENERGY
ENERGY SOURCES
INFORMATION
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MINERALS
NUMERICAL DATA
PLANETS
RADIATIONS
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
STELLAR RADIATION
SULFATE MINERALS
WEIGHT INDICATORS
540110*
661320 - Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magnetospheric Phenomena- (1992-)