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reflect sunlight
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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 does altitude affect the composition of clouds?
The greenhouse effect is weak for low altitude clouds, so their albedo effect dominates and they cool the Earth's climate. In contrast, cold high altitude cirrus clouds may either cool or warm the climate.
What are feathery high clouds?
Cirrus clouds are thin, wispy clouds usually formed at high altitudes.
What clouds are in a high pressure system?
In a high pressure system there are cirrus or stratus clouds or possibly no clouds
Many clouds have a high albedo and therefore tend to?
reflect sunlight
Many clouds have albedo?
Yes, everything has albedo. Albedo refers to the reflectivity of any object or substance. White clouds have a high albedo - they reflect a lot of light. Dark clouds have a lower albedo; they don't reflect as much.
What clouds are responsible for thunderstorms and how can you identify what cloud it is?
Cumulonimbus. Thunderstorm clouds are typically very thick and therefore have a high albedo (not very much sunlight penetrates through to the ground, most gets reflected off of the top). Therefore, these clouds appear grey and dark on the bottom.
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.
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.
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.
Mars has an albedo magnitude of?
The albedo of Mars is .15; you can see the albedo of all of the planets and moons in the solar system at the Nine Planets web site, linked below. "Albedo" is a measure of how reflective a body is. The higher the number, the more reflective the surface. So a high albedo says that a planet or asteroid reflects most of the light that hits it, while a low albedo indicates that most of the light is absorbed. Albedo can make calculations about climate change difficult. A planet with a high albedo reflects much of the Sun's light and heat, causing it not to heat up as much. A low albedo means that all of the solar radiation is absorbed and turned into heat. A warmer world will have less snow and ice cover, and thus a lower albedo, resulting in higher temperatures. On the other hand, a warmer world might have more clouds, which would increase Earth's albedo, reflect more sunlight, and reduce the heating effect. However, clouds also act to trap heat, sort of like a blanket. Whether the albedo effect would offset the "blanket" effect of clouds would depend on the type and height of the clouds and where they are located. Cloud effects are among the most important sources of uncertainty in modeling future climate change.
Why do the polar regions have high albedo?
Because snow reflects light more than non-white regions of the Earth and albedo is a measurement of reflectance. By definition white reflects all visible light therefore albedo is greatest .
What is responsible for reflecting light back into the atmosphere?
The characteristic of being able to reflect light is called albedo. Substances with high albedo are able to reflect more light. The major substances with high albedo that reflect light back into space from Earth are: clouds, snow, ice caps, aerosols etc. In fact, many environmentalists are pushing the "White Roof Movement" that encourages the painting of roofs white in order to increase the albedo in urban areas, hopefully decreasing the urban heat island effect.
How does altitude affect the composition of clouds?
The greenhouse effect is weak for low altitude clouds, so their albedo effect dominates and they cool the Earth's climate. In contrast, cold high altitude cirrus clouds may either cool or warm the climate.
Where is there high albedo?
Actually the very highest Albedo is from fresh snow which reads .8 to .9 (1 being the highest possible on the Albedo scale)
Many clouds reflect on a lot of sun light because they have an high?
Clouds have high albedos.
