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. The Dry Valleys are one of the few areas of Antarctica not covered by ice.

Detailed explanation-2: -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.

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: -Forests have low albedo, near 0.15. Snow and ice, on the other hand, are very light in color. They have very high albedo, as high as 0.8 or 0.9, and reflect most of the solar energy that gets to them, absorbing very little. The albedo of all these different surfaces combined is called the planetary albedo.

Detailed explanation-5: -An albedo of 1 would mean a perfect reflector and an albedo of 0 would absorb all light striking it. Albedo is the amount of sunlight (solar radiation) reflected by a surface, and is usually expressed as a percentage or a decimal value, with 1 being a perfect reflector and 0 absorbing all incoming light.