A Global Surface Albedo Model

Abstract We have shown in the past that the radiative-convective energy balance atmospheric model used at the General Motors Research Laboratories in our atmospheric physics research is extremely sensitive to the input value of surface albedo used. In response to this we developed a new global model of the surface albedo based on a detailed analysis of land use. The model has been used to determine the average surface albedo of the earth's surface in latitudinal bands for the four seasons of the year (January-March, April-June, July-September and October-December). In addition, global maps of surface albedo for elements 10° latitude by 10° longitude are provided. Our model involves: assigning one of 49 different types of surface to each of 77 040 areas for each of the four seasons. Each type of surface is assigned a different albedo for each season. The average surface albedo for a given latitudinal band is obtained by averaging the albedos for the areas in the desired latitudinal band. The average surfac...