Can anyone describe how albedo works and effects of temperature ?

Answer 1

Very simple yet very cool concept. The darker the object the the less albedo that object is going to have. This is why when you wear a black shirt in the summer you are completely hot but when you wear a white one then you are significantly cooler. Different surfaces affect the albedo and temperature. The higher the albedo a surface has then the lower the temperature.

The really tricky surface is water. Water does not have much of an albedo at all because it has a high capacity for heat and it absorbs a good amount of incoming solar radiation.

In case you need to know, the average albedo of this planet is around 30%. This means that 30% of the solar radiation that reaches the surface is reflected back into space.

Answer 2

Albedo Effect

Answer 3

Albedo is a measure of the reflecting power of a surface.If the albedo value of a surface varies,the temperature of that surface also varies.
Compared to a black surface ,a white surface has more Albedo value.That means a white surace reflects the incident radiation more, resulting in less temperature.
The albedo of the earth-atmospheric system as a whole is approximately 30 percent.This means that 30 percent of the incident solar radiation is returned to space, without any change of wavelength,by reflection from clouds and the earth's surface and by back-scattering from air molecules and dust.

Answer 4

I believe what would happen--if this was even a sustainable system--is that there would be waves of heat and cold, a negative feedback loop as you said. The black ice would cause temperatures to rise, once it disappeared temperatures would cool down and it would reform; in turn, recommencing the process. What is stable?--an environment which humans could survive in. This black ice albedo effect could create a consistent climate rhythm, but I do not believe humans and other organism would be able to survive. Plants that were not generalist species would most likely die, due to being exposed to both cold and heat. The ocean currents would be thrown all out of whack. And the gas and temperature composition of the atmosphere would be in perpetual change. I mean, hypothetically, this a climate the earth could assume. And the earth would be fine with it--we wouldn't

Answer 5

Simply put
Albedo is the portion of incoming radiation which is reflected by a surface.
for a good link on how this works see this link
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/srh/jetstream/atmos/energy.htm#can