Lunar Albedo

From Lunarpedia
Revision as of 06:29, 14 June 2007 by Cfrjlr (talk | contribs) (generic albedo info - needs to be made lunar specific)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is an automatically generated stub. As such it may contain serious errors.
You can help Lunarpedia by expanding or correcting it.



This autostub has not yet had its initial copyediting proof.


Albedo


The ratio of the amount of

electromagnetic radiation reflected by a body to the amount incident upon it, often expressed as a percentage, as, the albedo of the earth is 34% . Compare Bond albedo.

The concept defined above is identical with reflectance. However, albedo is more commonly used in astronomy and meteorology and reflectance in physics.
Albedo is sometimes used to mean the flux of the reflected radiation as, the earth albedo is 0.64 calorie per square centimeter. This usage should be discouraged.

The albedo is to be distinguished from the spectral reflectance which refers to one specific wavelength (monochromatic radiation).
Usage varies somewhat with regard to the exact wavelength interval implied in albedo figures; sometimes just the visible portion of the spectrum is considered, sometimes the totality of wavelengths in the solar spectrum.

References

This article is based on NASA's Dictionary of Technical Terms for Aerospace Use