Albedo -

The Mirror of the Earth: Why a Simple Fraction Holds the Key to Climate

Imagine, for a moment, that you are an astronaut looking down at Earth. From space, you see a swirling mosaic of brilliant white clouds, dark blue oceans, brown deserts, and green forests. The reason you can see this planet at all is because sunlight—electromagnetic radiation from a star 93 million miles away—hits the Earth and bounces back to your eyes. But what if the Earth bounced back more light? What if it bounced back less? The measure of this reflectivity is a simple fraction known as albedo.

Effects of Albedo on Climate

Types of Albedo

As the planet warms, changes in cloud cover remain the largest source of uncertainty in climate models. Will warmer oceans produce more low clouds (cooling) or more high clouds (warming)? Albedo