The featured chart presents local noon measurements of shortwave radiation from one of the NLAE Flux sites near Ames. The downwelling radiation is what makes it to the ground from the sun after passing through the atmosphere. The upwelling radiation is what is reflected by the surface and begins to travel back out into space. The ratio between these two values is known as albedo. A bare ground, a ground covered by snow, and a ground covered by vegetation have different values for albedo. The featured chart shows how the albedo changes over this year with noticeable differences appearing during periods of snow cover and as the corn crop vegetation increase its leaf area index and color.

Voting:
Good = 22
Bad = 10
Abstain = 9

Tags:   albedo