Expand this Topic clickable element to expand a topic
Skip to content
Optica Publishing Group

Method to determine snow albedo values in the ultraviolet for radiative transfer modeling

Not Accessible

Your library or personal account may give you access

Abstract

For many cases modeled and measured UV global irradiances agree to within ±5% for cloudless conditions, provided that all relevant parameters for describing the atmosphere and the surface are well known. However, for conditions with snow-covered surfaces this agreement is usually not achievable, because on the one hand the regional albedo, which has to be used in a model, is only rarely available and on the other hand UV irradiance alters with different snow cover of the surface by as much as 50%. Therefore a method is given to determine the regional albedo values for conditions with snow cover by use of a parameterization on the basis of snow depth and snow age, routinely monitored by the weather services. An algorithm is evolved by multiple linear regression between the snow data and snow-albedo values in the UV, which are determined from a best fit of modeled and measured UV irradiances for an alpine site in Europe. The resulting regional albedo values in the case of snow are in the 0.18–0.5 range. Since the constants of the regression depend on the area conditions, they have to be adapted if the method is applied for other sites. Using the algorithm for actual cases with different snow conditions improves the accuracy of modeled UV irradiances considerably. Compared with the use of an average, constant snow albedo, the use of actual albedo values, provided by the algorithm, halves the average deviations between measured and modeled UV global irradiances.

© 1999 Optical Society of America

Full Article  |  PDF Article
More Like This
Retrieval of the ultraviolet effective snow albedo during 1998 winter campaign in the French Alps

Irina Smolskaia, Dominique Masserot, Jacqueline Lenoble, Colette Brogniez, and Alain de la Casinière
Appl. Opt. 42(9) 1583-1587 (2003)

Effect of topography on average surface albedo in the ultraviolet wavelength range

Philipp Weihs, Helfried Scheifinger, Govindaraj Rengarajan, and Stana Simic
Appl. Opt. 39(21) 3592-3603 (2000)

Cited By

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Figures (5)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Figure files are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Tables (1)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Article tables are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Equations (3)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Equations are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Select as filters


Select Topics Cancel
© Copyright 2024 | Optica Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved