GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Snow and ice have the highest albedos of any parts of Earth’s surface: Some parts of Antarctica reflect up to 90% of incoming solar radiation.

Detailed explanation-2: -Bright surfaces, such as glaciers, have a high albedo and thus reflect a lot of the sun’s energy (Figure 1). Dark surfaces, like the ocean, are less reflective and have a lower albedo. The larger the bright surface the greater the albedo effect.

Detailed explanation-3: -An example of a material with a high albedo (high reflectivity) is fresh snow, whose albedo is approximately 0.84. In other words, fresh snow reflects approximately 84% of the incoming sunlight that strikes it. In contrast, glacial ice that is not covered with fresh snow exhibits an albedo range of 0.2 to 0.6 (20–60%).

Detailed explanation-4: -Ice typically has a lower albedo than snow, but estimates in the literature again vary substantially, from 0.1 to 0.6. A value ai = 0.2 is typical of midlatitude glaciers, whereas ai = 0.5 is more representative of sea ice and the ablation zones of polar glaciers and ice sheets.

Detailed explanation-5: -Land and liquid water have relatively low albedos (10 to 40 %), while ice and snow have higher albedos, typically between 70 and 90%. Multiple factors and processes can change the albedo of a surface over time.