Broadband Albedo Observations in the Southern Great Plains

Abstract

Abstract Time series of daily broadband surface albedo for 1998 and 1999 have been analyzed from six locations in the network of 22 Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Solar–Infrared Radiation Stations distributed from central Kansas to central Oklahoma. Two of the stations are in Kansas, and four are in Oklahoma; together they reasonably encompass the variation in geography in the southern Great Plains. Daily precipitation totals locally measured or obtained from nearby Oklahoma Mesonet stations and time series of biweekly maximum normalized difference vegetation index obtained from NOAA’s Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer were used to determine linkages between surface albedo and amount of precipitation and degree of green vegetation. As part of this determination, daily albedo was categorized according to sky condition, that is, clear, partly cloudy, or overcast, with appropriate boundaries for each category. The more notable results are the following: 1) 2-yr mean annual albedos varied by more than 20% among the six sites, the lowest albedo being 0.18 and the highest albedo being 0.22; 2) the numerical difference was about 4 times the maximum interannual mean difference among the six stations, indicating the importance of geographic location; 3) for sites with a large amount of bare soil, a systematic decrease in albedo in response to rainfall events and a systematic increase in albedo as the soil dried were observed; 4) at the one site with total vegetation cover, that is, no bare soil, albedo response to precipitation events was suppressed; 5) no relation was found between mean annual albedo and annual precipitation; 6) whether days were classified as clear or partly cloudy had little influence on daily albedo, but overcast days typically reduced albedo, sometimes substantially; and 7) the main contributor to low albedos on overcast days with rain was the wet surface; the contribution by the overcast sky was secondary.