Land surface albedo dynamics

Mid and high latitude regions of the northern hemisphere are characterized by both positive (blue) and negative (orange) anomalies mainly as a consequence of inter-annual variations in snow cover, amount and duration in winter and spring seasons. The positive anomalies especially in the visible range over northern United States and the high plains, Canadian southwest, central and eastern regions, across southern areas of East Europe north of the Black sea are probably associated with above average snow cover and extent in spring and autumn with the occurrence of significant snow events in these regions. The most pronounced negative anomalies reaching (or locally exceeding) -30 %, in the visible and about -10 % in the near-infrared domain occurred over northeast Europe, Turkey and northeast Iran, across the eastern and western states of the United States, northwest Canada, Mexico, east Mongolia and the northern regions of China.

PINTY Bernard;  GOBRON Nadine; 

2019-09-04

AMER METEOROLOGICAL SOC

JRC115829

0003-0007 (online),   

https://www.ametsoc.net/sotc2018/Socin2018_lowres.pdf,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC115829,   

10.1175/2019BAMSStateoftheClimate.1. (online),