Albedo
From FIS Freestyle wiki

The albedo of an object is the extent to which it diffusely reflects light from the Sun. It is therefore a more specific form of the term reflectivity. Albedo is defined as the ratio of diffusely reflected to incident electromagnetic radiation.
It is a unitless measure indicative of a surface's or body's diffuse reflectivity. The word is derived from Latin albedo "whiteness", in turn from albus "white". The range of possible values is from 0 (dark) to 1 (bright).

Snow albedos can be as high as 90%; this, however, is for the ideal example: fresh deep snow over a featureless landscape. Over Antarctica they average a little more than 80%.
If a marginally snow-covered area warms, snow tends to melt, lowering the albedo, and hence leading to more snowmelt (the ice-albedo positive feedback).
[edit] Also see
- Cloud albedo
- Albedo feedback
- Lighting Glossary
- Freestyle Skiing Course Preparation
- Floodlights
- TV Glossary of Terms
- Lighting Installation
- Reflection
- Metal Halide lamp
- Color Temperature
- Night time Freestyle Skiing Competitions
- Candela
- Color Rendering Index
- Design Lumens
- Exitance
- Footcandle
- Illuminance
- Illumination
- Intensity
- Lumen
- Lumens Per Watt
- Competitions under Artificial Light
- Lux lx
- Standard-definition television (SDTV)
- High-definition video HD
- Floodlights
- Kilowatt KW
[edit] Reference:
- 1. Wikipedia Reference Albedo [1]
Return to Snow and Weather Glossary, Lighting Glossary, Working with Snow or Freestyle Skiing