Short- and long-term variability of snow albedo

Abstract

The progress of snow albedo for the 1991 winter from Helligdagshaugen research site, Norway, is presented. The temporal reduction of albedo decreases as the snow undergoes a process of metamorphosis, as long as the snow depth is large enough to prevent absorption of solar radiation by the underlying terrain. Later, as the snow depth become less than about 10 cm and the area of bare patches grows, there is an increase in the temporal rate of reduction in albedo. An accumulated daily maximum temperature index is shown to be a good predictor of both the long-term development of the snow albedo and the daily mean albedo. The actual albedo deviates from the predicted long-term albedo due to variable meteorological conditions of which solar radiation is the most important one. -from Author