The light reflected from a surface depends on the scene geometry, the incident illumination and the surface material. One of the properties of the material is its albedo ρ(λ) and its variation with respect to wavelength. The albedo of a surface is purely a physical property. Our perception of albedo is commonly referred to as colour. This paper presents a novel methodology for extracting the al...

Land surface albedo is an essential variable for surface energy and climate modeling as it describes the proportion of incident solar radiant flux that is reflected from the Earth’s surface. To capture the temporal variability and spatial heterogeneity of the land surface, satellite remote sensing must be used to monitor albedo accurately at a global scale. However, large data gaps caused by cl...

Glacier surfaces are not only composed of ice or snow but are heterogeneousmixtures of different materials. The occurrence and dynamics of light-absorbing impurities affect ice surface characteristics and strongly influence glacier melt processes. However, our understanding of the spatial distribution of impurities and their impact on ice surface characteristics and the glacier's energy budget ...

The snow-masking effect of vegetation exerts strong control on albedo in northern high latitude ecosystems. Large-scale changes in the distribution and stature of vegetation in this region will thus have important feedbacks to climate. The snow-albedo feedback is controlled largely by the contrast between snow-covered and snow-free albedo (Δα), which influences predictions of future warming in ...

found on furrow and crater floors. We also find high albedo During its first two encounters with Ganymede, the Galileo units which include crater rims, furrow rims, and isolated knobs and massifs. Other features include an intermediate albedo spacecraft obtained images of a 16,500 km portion of Galileo Regio, a large expanse of dark terrain, at high resolution (76–86 lobate feature interpreted ...