Albedo

The albedo of an object is the extent to which it reflects light, more specifically light which comes from the Sun. It is defined as the ratio of reflected to incident electromagnetic radiation. It is a unitless measure indicative of a surface's or body's diffuse reflectivity. The word is derived from albus, a Latin word for "white".

Percentage of reflected sun light in relation to various surface conditions of the Earth.

Other websites

• Albedo - Encyclopedia of Earth
• NASA MODIS Terra BRDF/albedo product site Archived 2006-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
• NASA MODIS BRDF/albedo product site Archived 2006-05-05 at the Wayback Machine
• A discussion of Lunar albedos