A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1054 entries
albedo
The proportion of light that a surface reflects — its reflectivity, expressed as a number from 0 (absorbs all light) to 1 (reflects all light). Fresh snow has an albedo near 0.9; open ocean is around 0.06; a forest canopy around 0.15. Albedo determines how much solar energy a surface absorbs and is one of the key variables in climate.
Etymology
Latin albedo, whiteness, from albus, white. The whiteness of a surface — how much light it sends back.