Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The fraction of incident electromagnetic radiation reflected by a surface, especially of a celestial body.
- noun The spongy white tissue on the inside of the rind of citrus fruit.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Whiteness; specifically, the proportion of light falling on a surface and irregularly reflected from it: as, the albedo of the moon.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Astron.) Whiteness.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun physics, meteorology, astronomy The
fraction ofincident light orradiation reflected by asurface orbody , commonly expressed aspercentage . - noun biology The
whitish innerportion of therind ofcitrus fruits that is asource ofpectin , commonly referred to as thepith .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the ratio of reflected to incident light
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I'd think that reduction in albedo effect from the capture of solar power is a more important thing.
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It seems that the reduction in albedo (the action of reflecting solar radiation back into space) has deteriorated to the point of no return.
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Already the albedo is changing beacuse the big polar glaciers are melting.
Think Progress » Attacking Global Warming Science: Where There’s George Will, There’s a Way 2006
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All the radiation properties that can be summed up under the general term albedo can wildly vary according to the evolution of literally thousands of parameters all interacting with each other .
Exponential Growth in Physical Systems #2 « Climate Audit 2007
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The word albedo refers to the percentage of light an object reflects.
unknown title 2009
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Once the Earth is completely covered with ice, too, the ice won't melt on its own, because the Earth's reflectivity -- "albedo" -- is now so high.
Who Do You Say I Am 2010
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In the language of climate science, we would increase by a few percent the Earth's "albedo" -- the ratio of incoming sunlight reflected back into space relative to the total inbound from the sun.
Thinking Big on Global Warming Fred C. Ikle and Lowell Wood 2007
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What you are referring to is called the albedo of the surface, and changes have a major impact on climate and warming.
Solar Dreams, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
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The bias originates from underestimates of surface albedo, which is a critical parameter for accurately estimating surface UV irradiance in the Arctic.
Long-term change and variability in surface UV irradiance in the Arctic 2009
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The purified state is known as albedo, or whiteness.
Collage: Neck Deep in the Nigredo William Harryman 2007
brtom commented on the word albedo
I was enjoying the book until I came across the following sentence: "The albedo of Gilgit's brown, barren hills is high, and the heat from the sun just seems to bounce around the bowl that the town sits in." James Meek
January 3, 2008
reesetee commented on the word albedo
Great article, brtom--thanks for posting this.
January 3, 2008
inesdavenport18 commented on the word albedo
Just for fun
April 2, 2010
Telofy commented on the word albedo
Some five years after learning it here, I finally spotted it in the wild in Ender’s Game. :-D
October 14, 2013
MaryW commented on the word albedo
"The answer is always the same: albedo."
Mike Brown, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming</i> (New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2010)
October 11, 2015