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Would snow have a low or high albedo value?
Snow, particularly fresh snow, has some of the highest albedos of anything on Earth's surface.
What has the lowest albedo?
Albedo means reflectivity. The higher the albedo, the more light (and heat) is being reflected. Generally, the darker the color, the lower the albedo : most of the energy is absorbed. Snow has a fairly high albedo, as do clouds. Black tar roofs have a very low albedo.
Which Earth material has the highest albedo?
Probably snow, if your Earth includes the totality of items found on the planet. Some clouds would have an albedo almost as high - but only in parts. If you wish to limit your answer to earth solids, then perhaps milky quartz, and marble would have a high albedo.
How much solar energy is reflected back into space?
About 30% of incoming solar radiation is reflected back into space.Incoming solar radiation: 100%Reflected by the atmosphere: 6% : Absorbed by the atmosphere: 16%Continuing incoming solar radiation: 78%Reflected by clouds: 20% : Absorbed by clouds: 3%Continuing incoming solar radiation: 55%Reflected by the earth's surface: 4% : Absorbed by the earth's surface (lands and oceans): 51%(Source: NASA. see link below)A:Scientists use the term albedo to describe the percentage of solar radiation reflected back into space by an object or surface. A perfectly black surface has an albedo of 0 (all radiation is absorbed).A perfectly mirror-finished surface has an albedo of 1.0 (all radiation is reflected).Earth's average albedo is about 0.3. In other words, about 30 percent of incoming solar radiation is reflected back into space (from land, sea, clouds, ice and atmosphere) and 70 percent is absorbed.From point to point on the Earth's surface, the albedo varies; high for clouds or snow, low for cities and paved areas, intermediate for vegetation. Overall, averaging the bright areas with the cities, the Earth's albedo is about 0.3 or perhaps just a little higher; 0.34 or so.Well, all of it is not. Some of it is absorbed by the oceans, some by dry land, and some by the ice caps.
Which has a greater heat capacity--water or land?
One way that land and water differ when it comes to absorbing and losing heat is that water can do so by way of phase change - freezing, melting, evaporating, or condensing. Land tends to stay solid. Water also tends to be much more reflective than land - not always, but in general it is. Land tends to be both a better absorber and radiator of heat.
What surface has a low albedo?
The color black generally has the lowest albedo, or reflectivity.
What is the percentage of solar radiation reflected from a surface?
This is called the "albedo." It is the ratio of reflected light compared to incident light, and depends on the surface material and its condition (e.g. snow, grassland).
What does it mean to say that a ground cover has a low albedo?
It means that low radiation is reflected by a or its surface.
What is something that has low albedo?
An object that has a high albedo is one that is highly reflective, but a poor absorber. An object that has a low albedo is one that does not reflect well, therefore, is a good absorber. This means that a black object has low albedo.
Would snow have a low or high albedo value?
Snow, particularly fresh snow, has some of the highest albedos of anything on Earth's surface.
What has the lowest albedo?
Albedo means reflectivity. The higher the albedo, the more light (and heat) is being reflected. Generally, the darker the color, the lower the albedo : most of the energy is absorbed. Snow has a fairly high albedo, as do clouds. Black tar roofs have a very low albedo.
Why do the albedo values shift throughout the year?
Albedo, or the amount of sunlight reflected by an object, can vary by the season or by other factors. For example, clouds reflect much more sunlight back into space than water does, and ice and snow reflect even more. Forests, plants and bare ground have fairly low albedo; they absorb more energy.
What covers the surface of the moon?
Topographically speaking, a wide variety of geographic formations cover the surface of the moon, from the widely recognized craters to low-lying, low albedo maria. Geologically speaking, however, the moon's surface is mainly composed of different types of igneous rock, commonly found the presence of volcanic activity, primarily including basalts (dark, rapidly-cooled molten rock of the maria), anorthosite (slowly-cooled rock of the highlands), and breccias (fragments of the aforementioned types welded together by meteorites).
What are Effects of high albedo?
The albedo is the relative reflectivity of light from a surface, which for solar radiation indicates the percentage of solar energy that is not absorbed. Darker bodies generally have a lower reflectivity value.its the overall coefficient of reflectivity of an object
Does a mirror have a low albedo?
no. a mirror has a high abedo (perhaps the highest)
How does a low albedo affect the earth?
A lower albedo would mean that the Earth would absorb more solar energy and warm up more.
Does the land area or water area of Earth's surface absorb more solar energy?
Short Answer:Since there is so much more water than land, one expects that most of the solar energy absorbed by Earth is absorbed into the oceans. That is correct.Crudely, twice as much energy is absorbed by the oceans as the land since there is roughly a bit more than twice as much ocean as land.More Technical (Albedo):The characterization of how much solar energy is absorbed by a portion of the surface of the Earth is something called the albedo of the surface. Some surfaces, like dirt, forests and the ocean absorb most of the Sun's energy. Others, like Snow reflect most of it. Deserts are in between.The albedo of a surface is the fraction of light it reflects. (The term "reflects" does not mean like a mirror but rather means scatters or causes to light bounce back to distinguish "reflection" from the process where light is absorbed.) Normally, one refers to sunlight when quoting an albedo, but if a different or specific wavelength range is being considered, there are different values of the albedo that are defined for different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.On average, the ocean surface has a low albedo meaning it absorbs most of the light that gets to it.The same is true for bare soil and most forests.Though the albedo is variable, 70 or 80 % of the light is absorbed.Desert areas typically have high albedos and can reflect most of the light.Most land areas are in an albedo range of 0.1 to 0.4, so 90% to 60% of the light is absorbed.The average albedo of the Earth is about 0.3, somewhat higher than typical of oceans or much of the land area primarily because of the contribution of clouds.Clouds reflect light very effectively, absorbing little.
