9 Albedo
When you’re thinking of putting on a new roof, make it white.
Steven Chu
Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy (2009)
9.1 Introduction
A surface reflects and scatters a fraction of the incident solar irradiance that falls on it, including the direct normal irradiance (DNI) and the scattered sunlight that arrives from all parts of the sky, that is, the diffuse horizontal irradiance (DHI). However, a surface reflects the DNI and DHI components very differently, as will be discussed in this chapter on albedo. In general, albedo is defined as the total reflected irradiance divided by the total incident irradiance. Snowfields and deep oceans represent extremes in albedo. For newly fallen snow, 90% or more of the incident radiation may ...
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