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Garden with Insight v1.0 Help: Soil patch next day functions: calculate today's albedo


If there is significant snow on the soil patch (at least five millimeters deep) the albedo is set to 0.6 (which means that 60% of the incoming radiation is reflected). If there is no snow and the soil patch has no plants, the albedo is set to the bare-soil albedo for the patch (a parameter). If there are plants on the patch, the albedo is calculated as

AB = 0.23 * (1.0 - SCI) + AB(s) * SCI

where 0.23 is an assumed albedo for any plant cover, AB(s) is the bare-soil albedo, and SCI is the soil cover index.

If the "update albedo" option is turned off, this calculation is not done and yesterday's albedo value is carried over to today.

calculation of soil cover index
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 Updated: May 4, 1998. Questions/comments on site to webmaster@kurtz-fernhout.com.
Copyright © 1998 Paul D. Fernhout & Cynthia F. Kurtz.