Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The fraction of incident electromagnetic radiation reflected by a surface, especially of a celestial body.
- n. The spongy white tissue on the inside of the rind of citrus fruit.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Whiteness; specifically, the proportion of light falling on a surface and irregularly reflected from it: as, the albedo of the moon.
Wiktionary
- n. The fraction of incident light or radiation reflected by a surface or body, commonly expressed as percentage.
- n. The whitish inner portion of the rind of citrus fruits that is a source of pectin.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Whiteness. The ratio which the light reflected from an unpolished surface bears to the total light falling upon that surface.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the ratio of reflected to incident light
Etymologies
- Late Latin albēdō, whiteness, from Latin albus, white; see albho- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“I'd think that reduction in albedo effect from the capture of solar power is a more important thing.”
“It seems that the reduction in albedo (the action of reflecting solar radiation back into space) has deteriorated to the point of no return.”
“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
“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 .”
“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.”
“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.”
“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
“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
“The purified state is known as albedo, or whiteness.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘albedo’.
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Words that sound dirty but aren't.
When you want to be pedantic AND childish.
titular, masticate, condiment, titmouse, penal, formication, social intercourse, assassination, cacophony, lucubrate, rectify, banal and 117 more...
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color, light & sight
albedo, chromatography, chromatic, tone, penumbra, superluminal, diaphanous, iridescent, amethyst, opalescent, celadon, lapis and 13 more...
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Cloudy
with a chance of mizzle
puff, nebulous, fog, overcast, becloud, bedim, taint, befog, dapple, mottle, sully, pother and 83 more...
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Alternative energy concepts
Words that are becoming more important as we learn more about alternative and renewable energy sources.
microreactors, fuel cell, biomass, biofuel, algae, fission, fusion, turbine, hydrogen, solar, photovoltaic, solar thermal and 47 more...
reesetee Great article, brtom--thanks for posting this. Jan 3, 2008
brtom 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 Jan 3, 2008