The albedo decay of prairie snows

Abstract

Daily albedos of snow were measured between November and April, 1969-87, and were analyzed to determine the decay rate between snowfalls. The major result of this study was that none of the factors considered in the aging process of snow (temperature, heat sums, sunshine, solar altitude, and time) could be used individually to successfully predict the albedo decay of single runs. A relatively strong relationship, however, was found between the mean albedos and the number of days since the last measurable snowfall; r2=0.84 and 0.86 for the linear and exponential equations, respectively. The mean albedo on the day following a snowfall greater than a trace averaged about 80% during the November-April period. -from Authors