APRIL 2007

543

Online

Geo file

Geoffrey Parsons

Albedo effect and heat budgets

Figure 1: Average surface albedo over a year (%)

Albedo
Albedo is the percentage of the
incident sunlight or radiation that is
reflected. It is a measure of the
reflectivity of a surface. Objects that
reflect most of the light that hits
them look bright and have a high
albedo. Dark objects tend to absorb
most of the light that falls on them
and have a low albedo. Fresh snow,
for example, has an albedo of 8090%. The range of values reflects the
variability of the snows surface: 90%
is the maximum, and might be
measured over deep, fresh snow in a
flat landscape. In Antarctica, the
figure is a little over 80%. Albedo is
worked out as the ratio of the
intensity of the radiation reflected to
the amount incident on it; i.e.
intensity of radiation reflected from a surface x 100
amount of incident radiation

Albedo figures are usually quoted as

percentages, although some texts
quote them as fractions, where 1
would be a perfectly reflecting
surface, i.e. 100%.
It is convenient (and easier) to think
of albedo as a measurement of
reflected light, although this may be
rather an over-simplification. Light
is just one type of radiation in the
electromagnetic spectrum and
albedo can be measured by looking
at all wavelengths which are hitting
the object and being reflected from
it. This is the total albedo. The
visible albedo, however, measures
the reflection from a surface of
visible radiation i.e. light, where an
average across the spectrum of
visible light is taken.
In fact, the two are almost the same
at the Earths surface, since the only
sort of radiation to reach the surface
in any quantity is light (with infrared and small amounts of ultra
violet).
Typical albedos are:

Snow
Sand
Tropical rain forest
Deciduous forest
Clouds

8090%
3035%
715%
1518%
3590%.

All of the measurements fall within

relatively small ranges with the
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60

80

40

40

60

10

20
20

40

20
10

20

20
10

10
20

10
40

10
20
40

10
20
0

60

40

exception of clouds. This is because

decrease
the lower latitudes
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Fig 543_01
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s/s albedo is
clouds vary mainly in terms
of their
where low 11
average
NELSON
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type and thickness, and this
has a THORNES
associated
with the dark, luxuriant
Artist: David Russell Illustration
pronounced effect on their albedo.
forests of the tropics. However, there
As you might expect, wispy, thin
are anomalies: North Africa has a
clouds reflect back far less light than higher average albedo than its
thicker clouds. Clouds about 20m
latitude would suggest, due mainly
thick have albedos of about 35%.
to the reflective nature of the
These typically would be cirrus
surfaces in this area.
clouds, whereas clouds about 1000m
Water surfaces have a wide variation
thick reflect back 90% of the light
in their reflective capacity. This is
that falls on them (Barry and
due to the nature of the surface: still,
Chorley 1987, p 19). Cumulonimbus
calm water has a higher albedo than
clouds have albedos of 90%, stratus
rough, choppy water where the light
60% and cirrus about 40%.
rays are reflected in all directions,
including back into the water. The
Albedo depends on:
same effect is found in urban areas,
colour of the surface
another rough surface, where light
type of surface (land, sea, soil,
may be reflected back and forth
urban, its roughness)
between tall buildings and all the
angle of incidence.
time it will lose a little of its energy
as it is absorbed, so reducing the
The colour of a surface is a key
resulting albedo.
factor. As stated earlier, lighter
coloured surfaces tend to reflect
Water is also translucent and lets
more than darker ones, hence the
light shine in, whereas land is
need for sunglasses for sunny, snowopaque and only the surface affects
covered surfaces.
the albedo. The wavelengths of the
radiation arriving at the surface also
The type of surface, whether it is
influence the albedo of water. Some
land or sea, urban or natural, and
wavelengths are reflected back. Long
also if the surface is rough or
wave radiation, infra-red, is absorbed
smooth, are other important factors.
near the surface, whereas shorter
From Figure 1 we can see that land
wavelengths (light) can penetrate up
generally has a higher average
to 200m in depth. The more light
albedo compared to the sea. The
that can penetrate and be absorbed
trend seems to show an increasing
by a body of water, the lower the
albedo for increasing latitude. The
albedo will be.
highest albedos are found in the
polar regions, where snow and ice
The angle of incidence affects the
cover predominate, and generally
albedo of water in particular. Light

April 2007 no.543 Albedo effect and heat budgets

heat energy in the Earth-atmosphere
system. In terms of energy input we
only need to consider the energy
from the sun insolation (incoming
solar radiation). A tiny amount of
geothermal heat leaks out from the
Earths surface, and although this is
high where volcanoes are active, on
average this heat flow is only 60
mWm-2 over the Earths surface
(only enough to melt 6mm of ice per
year), which is negligible when
compared to the energy supplied by
the sun.

Figure 2: Comparison of the

wavelengths of solar radiation with
terrestrial radiation
E
Incoming solar

2000

Energy flow (Wm2 mm1)

1000
Outgoing
terrestrial

500
200

100

10 15
mm

50
20

25

Terrestrial
radiation
to space

Solar
radiation

10

20

5
2
1
0.1 0.2

0.5

1
2
5 10 20
Wavelength (mm)

Ultraviolet Visible

50 100

Infrared

rays hitting waters surface at low

angles tend
to be
reflected
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Fig 543_02
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surface:
at anMac/eps/illustrator
angle of incidence
THORNES
PUBLISHING
15, NELSON
when the
sun is low
in the sky,
Artist: David Russell Illustration
about 50% of the light is reflected off
the waters surface. At higher angles
of incidence, 60 for example, the
albedo is only 23%.

Heat budgets
A heat budget or energy budget, tries
to quantify the inputs and outputs of

The sun is a star, and at its core,

temperatures reach 16 million C,
which arise through nuclear
reactions (fusion), producing energy.
This energy reaches the suns surface
by convection and radiation. The
suns energy is emitted from a
relatively cool outer surface called
the photosphere. The temperature
of the photosphere is about 6000C.
The surface temperature of a star
like the sun is important as it
determines the wavelengths of the
radiation emitted. At temperatures
of about 6000C the sun radiates in a
wide range of wavelengths from very
short wavelength X-rays and UV, to
visible light and then longer
wavelengths like infra-red and
radiowaves. However, the peak
output of the sun is in the visible

part of the spectrum, corresponding

to radiation with wavelengths
between 0.36m-0.7m (A m is one
millionth of a metre). Figure 2
shows solar radiation plotted against
energy. Peak energy lies in the
visible range of the spectrum about
45% of the suns output. The longer
wavelengths, (infra-red) account for
46% with the rest being UV or
shorter wavelengths.
The inset in Figure 2 shows the
incoming solar and outgoing
terrestrial radiation plotted on an
arithmetic scale. From this we can
conveniently refer to incoming
solar as shortwave radiation whilst
outgoing terrestrial would be long
wave radiation.

Incoming solar radiation

(shortwave)
This shortwave radiation arrives at
the top of the atmosphere. The
amount of energy here as measured
by satellites is about 1930 Wm-2.
However this figure is for the entire
surface area of the Earth. At any one
time, the area that actually gets the
radiation is only a quarter of the
total surface area which gives an
energy receipt of approximately 345
Wm-2. What now happens to the
radiation depends on the wavelength

Figure 3: The Earths heat budget

OUTGOING TERRESTRIAL

INCOMING SOLAR
Short wave
radiation

Long wave
radiation

100

23

Gain

m 64

30 + 6

Loss
e

57

100

36
64

Space

HEAT BUDGET

100

Loss

Gain
b

27
h

22 + 5

91

b+c
h

97

57
78

15

135
j+c

27

d 22
135

Atmosphere

Direct
beam

31

Diffuse
radiation

Gain
78

98

47

Loss

47

78
125

Source: Wright (1983, Figure 4.4)

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g
j+i

98
27
125

Earth

16

April 2007 no.543 Albedo effect and heat budgets

of the radiation, the composition of
the atmosphere and its thickness.
Figure 3 shows the the heat budget
and what happens to the incoming
(shortwave) radiation and the
outgoing (long wave) radiation. For
convenience, we can regard for
accounting purposes the input of
solar energy at the top of the
atmosphere to be 100 units (see a in
Figure 3).
There are three processes which
operate in the atmosphere which
affect the radiation as it passes
through it. These are absorption,
scattering and reflection.
1. Absorption
In the upper atmosphere, absorption
occurs in three phases.
(i) High up in the atmosphere
(above 85km), shortwave
radiation is absorbed by oxygen
molecules (O2).
(ii) At about 50km, oxygen molecules
absorb the UV radiation and split
to form two atoms of oxygen.
One of these atoms then
combines with an oxygen
molecule to form ozone (O + O2
= O3) This ozone then diffuses
down to about 25km forming the
main concentration of ozone in
the stratosphere.
(iii)At 40km, shortwave radiation of
between 0.2m 0.3m is
absorbed by ozone. In this
process the ozone is actually
destroyed.
These three phases effectively filter
out the dangerous shortwave
radiation before it reaches the
Earths surface (see b in Figure 3).
Absorption in the upper atmosphere
only accounts for two units. Most of
the absorption occurs in the lowest
layer of the atmosphere, the
troposphere. Here, insolation is
mostly absorbed by water vapour
and, to a far lesser extent, by aerosols
and clouds which altogether account
for 15 units (see c in Figure 3). All
absorption reduces the amount of
insolation reaching the Earths
surface and serves to warm up the
atmosphere.
2. Scattering
Insolation also suffers scattering as
it passes through the atmosphere.
Very small particles of dust, air
molecules and water vapour can be
hit by a beam of sunlight and,
although none of the energy is lost,
Geofile Online Nelson Thornes 2007

it is scattered in all directions with

no change to the wavelength. The
amount of scattering depends on:
the wavelength of the beam of
the radiation
the size of the particle doing the
scattering.
In the atmosphere there are lots of
particles about 0.5 microns in size
(another way of saying 0.5 m) and
this results in more scattering of
shorter wavelengths. This is why
the sky is blue as this colour
corresponds to those wavelengths
which are preferentially scattered.
When the sun is low on the horizon
the sky appears red as the blue
wavelengths have been scattered out
of the direct beam and only orange
and red are seen.
22 units of light are scattered; six of
these are scattered out of the
atmosphere into space whilst the
rest are scattered down to the to the
surface as diffuse radiation as
opposed to direct beam (see d in
Figure 3).
3. Reflection (see e in Figure 3)
Insolation is mainly reflected by the
tops of clouds, and, as we have seen,
the albedo of clouds varies
enormously. On average, the Earth
has a cloud cover of 55% and this
causes clouds to reflect back 23
units into space. Of the sunlight
that finally reaches the Earths
surface, seven units are reflected
back off surfaces such as snow and
ice at high latitudes. This insolation
is not absorbed by the surface and
therefore has no effect on warming
the surface. These seven units are
added to the 23 reflected by clouds
to give 30 units. This is the
planetary albedo (although some
texts include the six units scattered
into space as well, giving a figure of
36 units).

Terrestrial radiation
(longwave)
Forty-seven units of insolation
arrive at the Earths surface. (see f in
Figure 3). Thirty-one units are
direct beam, i.e. pass through the
atmosphere with no interactions
such as absorption, scattering etc.
Sixteen units reach the surface
through downward scattering.
These 47 units are absorbed by the
Earth and, as a result, it warms up.
The temperature that the surface
reaches means that it emits

radiation not as shortwave like the

sun, but as long wave radiation in
the infra-red part of the spectrum.
So the Earth absorbs light energy
and radiates it out as heat. This is
shown in Figure 2 where the curve
representing the radiation output by
the Earth is shown as a smaller
curve which peaks at about 10m in
the infra-red zone, i.e. heat.
This heat which is shown as 98
units (g in Figure 3) leaves the
Earths surface and is absorbed by
the atmosphere, mainly by water
vapour, CO2 and some ozone. These
are efficient absorbers. The
atmosphere is quite transparent to
light whereas for heat it is very
effective at absorbing it (see h in
Figure 3). Only seven units of the 98
leaving the Earths surface escape
into space. The rest is absorbed and
warms up the atmosphere. It is
important to realise that visible
light plays very little part in
warming the atmosphere. Apart
from some absorption of short
wavelengths (UV radiation),
sunlight passes through the
atmosphere quite easily and doesnt
really interact with it that much.
The atmosphere also gets heat from
two other ways: conduction and
convection.
1. Conduction
Conduction is when the hot ground
heats up the air molecules in contact
with it and in turn, these molecules
pass on the energy to those touching
them and so on. Conduction is only
thought to be effective in a very
shallow layer of air-perhaps as little
as 1mm! (McIntosh and Thom 1969,
p.32). Figure 3 shows that five units
are transferred in this way (i).
2. Convection
Convection is the upward
movement of air as in thermals. The
air rises as it is warmer and less
dense. Convection has two ways of
getting heat into the atmosphere.
Firstly, the upward movement
carries warm air into the
atmosphere and so injects warmth.
Secondly any evaporated water
vapour that is in this convecting air
can rise and eventually it will
condense and releases latent heat
into the atmosphere. Convection
transfers 22 units of heat into the
atmosphere (see j in Figure 3).
To recap, the atmosphere gets most
of its heat from:

April 2007 no.543 Albedo effect and heat budgets

Figure 4: CO2 levels measured by
indirect methods (ice cores) and direct
measurement of atmospheric CO2, the
so-called j curve
370
360
350
CO2 (ppm)

340
330
320
310
300
290
280
270
2100

1900

2000

1700

1800

1500

1600

1300

1400

1100

1200

1000

260

Year

Source: www.planktos.com/educational/carbon.htm

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radiation
Artist: David Russell Illustration
radiation of heat from the
Earths surface
convection
conduction.

This atmospheric heat has two

possible escape routes; out into
space and back down to the Earth.
In Figure 3, 57 units escape to space,
whilst 78 are re-radiated back to the
Earth (see k & l respectively Figure
3). It is this second-hand heat from
the atmosphere which is responsible
for keeping the Earth at a reasonable
temperature at an average of 15C
without it we could expect
temperatures to be 33C lower at
about -18C.
The atmosphere is acting like a
blanket, the so-called greenhouse
effect. The absorbing gases (CO2,
water vapour, and ozone) only make
up a very small percentage of the
atmosphere (eg CO2 makes up 0.03%
of the atmosphere) but they perform
a very important role in raising the
temperatures at the Earths surface
to that at which life can exist.
Overall, the Earth-atmosphere
system is in balance, it gains as
much energy (light) as it loses (heat)
(see m and end box Figure 3).

Human activities and the

heat budget
1. Greenhouse effect
In recent times, concern has been
raised by the level of injection of
CO2 into the atmosphere. Over most
of the past 1000 years, the CO2 level
was relatively stable, around 280ppm
(parts per million) but since about
Geofile Online Nelson Thornes 2007

1800 the amount has rapidly risen,

to produce what has been dubbed a j
curve (Figure 4 ). Todays figure
stands at 381ppm (BBC News 14
March, 2006). An increase in this
absorbing gas makes the atmosphere
more efficient in absorbing the
radiation from the Earth, so it
warms up. In turn, the warmer
atmosphere re-radiates more heat,
some out to space, but also back
down to the Earth. Since 1940,
temperatures have risen globally by
about 0.4C, hence the term global
warming.
2. Ozone depletion
CFCs are compounds that were
widely used in industry such as in
fridges, aerosols, air conditioning
and solvents. The active ingredient
in CFC is chlorine, which during
October (Southern Hemisphere
spring) acts to destroy ozone in the
stratosphere, so thinning the layer
over the whole of Antarctica, the socalled ozone hole. This reduction of
ozone means that less shortwave
(UV) radiation is being absorbed by
the stratosphere and so more may be
reaching the surface. UV radiation is
harmful to both humans causing
skin cancer and plants.
Note that the two problems, the
greenhouse effect and ozone
depletion, are separate issues. Global
warming is a climate based problem
whereas the main effect of ozone
depletion is to do with our health.

also help us understand the impacts

we have caused and how we may
solve some of the problems that have
affected the atmosphere.

References
R.G. Barry and R.J. Chorley (1987)
Atmosphere, Weather and Climate (5th
edn), Methuen.
David Holmes, Geo Factsheet No 167
Simple Guide to Energy Budgets,
Curriculum Press.
D.H.McIntosh and A.S.Thom (1969)
Essentials of Meteorology, Wykeham
Publications Ltd.
Leslie F. Musk (1988) Weather
Systems, Cambridge University
Press.
David Wright (1983) Meteorology,
Blackwell.
www.gsfc.nasa.gov
Earths Energy Balance a readable
account which includes details of the
effects of clouds and aerosols.
http://www.physicalgeography.net/
fundamentals/7f.html
a very clear site with easy,
understandable illustrations.
www.planktos.com/educational/
carbon.htm
a very good site written from the
point of view of environmental
oceanographers and contains
excellent graphs.

Conclusion
The Earths heat budget is vitally
important in understanding the
interactions between the sun,
atmosphere and the Earth. It may

Focus Questions
1. Explain, in terms of albedo and absorption, how the following
surfaces of a glacier may affect its melting:
a covering of new snow
a thick covering of debris
a dirty ice surface.
2. Describe and explain the pattern of albedo values in Figure 1, referring
to surface colour, angle of incidence and the type of the surface.
3. Make a large copy of Figure 3 (at least A4 size) and annotate it with brief
notes outlining the processes of absorption, scattering, reflection, radiation,
conduction and convection. Colour the lines of the incoming radiation
yellow whilst the outgoing radiation, the middle box, red.
4. Explain how both of the human impacts mentioned above (the
greenhouse effect and ozone depletion) increase the energy input into the
atmosphere.