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Geolens

Glossary

417 words used in the labs.

Find a term from the labs, understand the process behind it, and see how it appears in the landscape. Each entry connects an explanation with a real observation and a model you can explore.

Term

Albedo

The fraction of incoming sunlight reflected by a surface, expressed from zero to one or as a percentage. Fresh snow usually has a high albedo and dark soil a lower one. Reflected energy in watts per square metre is a flux, not albedo itself.

What to look for

CERES measures reflected shortwave energy in W m⁻². Albedo is the fraction of incoming sunlight reflected, so obtaining it requires dividing reflected flux by the corresponding incoming flux; the colour scale here is not albedo.

Related labs

Earth’s energy budget →
NASA CERES map of reflected shortwave radiation averaged over 2000–2015, with a 0–385 W m⁻² colour scale.
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Explore further with USGS water glossary · USGS volcano glossary · NPS glacial geology · NASA Earth facts. Photograph acknowledgements are collected on the Image credits page.