Radiation Budget Activity: Data Answers

Questions and Answers:

1. What is albedo?

   Albedo is the percentage of incoming sunlight that is reflected back into space.

2. Find a Web site (from the list below) with a data image showing the surface albedo for January with an 8-year average.

   http://agni.larc.nasa.gov/DataSets/sample.html
   or more specifically
   http://agni.larc.nasa.gov/DataSets/jan_alb.html

3. What would it mean if there was an albedo of 0% ?

   An albedo of 0 indicates that no sunlight is reflected. [See Glossary]

4. What would it mean if there was an albedo of 50% ?

   A 50% albedo would indicate that half of all sunlight reaching the Earth is reflected into space.

5. How can you obtain more information about topics to these questions?

   You can obtain more information about topics related to these questions by searching the Internet and from books in the library.