What is Albedo Effect And How Does it Impact Climate Change?

The climate change processes of the earth are complex and depend on many external and internal factors, natural and artificial. Among these, the albedo effect is of great significance but is frequently overlooked. The term albedo simply means the fraction of solar energy that the Earth’s surface can reflect, and it is important for the bigger picture of climate change. This article covers the albedo effect in detail, including its impact factors on climate change and the factors that limit the effect of the phenomenon.

What is the Albedo Effect?
The albedo effect explains how much sunlight gets reflected from the surface of the earth. The term comes from the Latin word ‘whiteness,’ which is why the word albedo describes the ability of some objects to reflect the incoming light, where 0 and 1 are the lowest and the highest values, respectively. The 0 value corresponds to a surface where all the incoming sunlight gets attracted, such as deep oceans, dense vegetation, etc. The 1 value, on the other hand, corresponds to a surface that reflects sunlight entirely, for example, ice or freshly fallen snow.