albedo, definition of

The biophysical environment is the symbiosis between the physical environment and the biological life forms within the environment, and includes all variables that comprise the Earth's biosphere.

Wikipedia Entry

• Study: Earth’s growing heat imbalance – it’s the clouds and natural climate variability
  Understanding this hemispheric “balancing act” helps society focus on the true forces behind global warming—changes in cloud behavior linked to surface warming and natural climate variability
• Can Annual Irradiance = Annual Enthalpy? If So, What Does It Show About Climate Change
  This mathematical exercise was done to see how close calculated irradiance would come to measured irradiance and to prove that climate models using enthalpy instead of radiation or irradiation were valid.  (The CRGW (3) model is a enthalpy based model). ...
• If So, What Does It Show About Climate Change
  This mathematical exercise was done to see how close calculated irradiance would come to measured irradiance and to prove that climate models using enthalpy instead of radiation or irradiation were valid.  (The CRGW (3) model is a enthalpy based model). ...
• BOMBSHELL: Study Reveals Climate Warming Driven by Receding Cloud Cover
  If climate science were a functioning scientific discipline rather than a priesthood, this paper would trigger a major course correction. It would cast doubt on the simplistic link between CO₂ and warming, redirecting focus toward cloud physics, ocean-atmosphere...
• James Hansen: Climate Cassandra or Science Salesman?
  Hansen’s argument structure is fundamentally circular: he assumes a high-sensitivity system, interprets ambiguous data to reinforce that view, and then treats the match as confirmation...
• The Continuing Albedo Change Warms the Earth More Than Twice as Much as CO2
  All life on Earth (somehow) originates from the Sun's heat. But how much of the solar irradiation reaches us Earthlings?
• Let it snow!
  Snow – those marvelous little crystals of frozen water that drift down from the sky – in gentle silence, in the fury of an artic-like blizzard, or in any and everything in between...
• An Unexplored Source of Climate Change: Land Evapotranspiration Changes Over Time.
  This Model was created to encourage scientist to collect the information necessary to determine the Earth’s ET change over time, the area of “special parcels”  and plume size.  This Model shows that this data is necessary for our complete understanding...
• More on Cloud Reduction.  CO2 is innocent but Clouds are guilty.
  Statistical uncertainty in the CERES and Cloud data seem to retard acceptance of alternative GW theories.
• Why do Earth’s hemispheres look equally bright when viewed from space?
  For years, the brightness symmetry between hemispheres remained a mystery.

Related Tags: environment

The ratio of reflected to incident light; albedo can be expressed as either a percentage or a fraction of 1. Snow covered areas have a high albedo (up to about 0.9 or 90%) due to their white color, while vegetation has a low albedo (generally about 0.1 or 10%) due to the dark color and light absorbed for photosynthesis. Clouds have an intermediate albedo and are the most important contributor to the Earth's albedo. The Earth's aggregate albedo is approximately 0.3.

• Study: Earth’s growing heat imbalance – it’s the clouds and natural climate variability
  Understanding this hemispheric “balancing act” helps society focus on the true forces behind global warming—changes in cloud behavior linked to surface warming and natural climate variability
• Can Annual Irradiance = Annual Enthalpy? If So, What Does It Show About Climate Change
  This mathematical exercise was done to see how close calculated irradiance would come to measured irradiance and to prove that climate models using enthalpy instead of radiation or irradiation were valid.  (The CRGW (3) model is a enthalpy based model). ...
• If So, What Does It Show About Climate Change
  This mathematical exercise was done to see how close calculated irradiance would come to measured irradiance and to prove that climate models using enthalpy instead of radiation or irradiation were valid.  (The CRGW (3) model is a enthalpy based model). ...
• BOMBSHELL: Study Reveals Climate Warming Driven by Receding Cloud Cover
  If climate science were a functioning scientific discipline rather than a priesthood, this paper would trigger a major course correction. It would cast doubt on the simplistic link between CO₂ and warming, redirecting focus toward cloud physics, ocean-atmosphere...
• James Hansen: Climate Cassandra or Science Salesman?
  Hansen’s argument structure is fundamentally circular: he assumes a high-sensitivity system, interprets ambiguous data to reinforce that view, and then treats the match as confirmation...
• The Continuing Albedo Change Warms the Earth More Than Twice as Much as CO2
  All life on Earth (somehow) originates from the Sun's heat. But how much of the solar irradiation reaches us Earthlings?
• Let it snow!
  Snow – those marvelous little crystals of frozen water that drift down from the sky – in gentle silence, in the fury of an artic-like blizzard, or in any and everything in between...
• An Unexplored Source of Climate Change: Land Evapotranspiration Changes Over Time.
  This Model was created to encourage scientist to collect the information necessary to determine the Earth’s ET change over time, the area of “special parcels”  and plume size.  This Model shows that this data is necessary for our complete understanding...
• More on Cloud Reduction.  CO2 is innocent but Clouds are guilty.
  Statistical uncertainty in the CERES and Cloud data seem to retard acceptance of alternative GW theories.
• Why do Earth’s hemispheres look equally bright when viewed from space?
  For years, the brightness symmetry between hemispheres remained a mystery.

Related Tags: climate change, global warming, environment