NASA ERBE Climatology Clear-Sky Albedo





                    Clear Sky Albedo in July                                    Clear Sky Albedo in January

(click above to generate albedo images for other months)

What do these images tell us?

As you can see from the images above, the albedo in January is much higher than the albedo in July.  The reason for this is that the land masses, which are concentrated in the Northern hemisphere, are covered by more ice and snow and less vegetation in the winter.  This causes the surface of the earth to be more reflective in the winter months.  Also the July image is missing data from the South pole, while the January image is missing data from the North pole.
Why is there sometimes no data at the poles?
Because the ERBE satellite measures visible light, it won't retreive any data from the North Pole in the winter, or from the South Pole in the summer.
What causes the changes over the ocean?
Sun glint and waves cause changes in the albedo measurements of the ocean.
Earth Radiation Budget Links
ERBE Datasets, Plots & Images
LaRC
ERBS Solar Irradiance Measurements
Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget Experiment
http://rdcweb.com/proj_cp11.html
http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/erbe/ASDerbe.html
http://earth-www.larc.nasa.gov/erbelike/