Abstract
THE short-wave or optical albedo has been determined for a great variety of terrestrial surfaces by many observers. In the case of snow, and also for water, the albedo is known to depend on solar elevation and on the presence or absence of a cloud cover1,2. Little thought seems to have been given to the mechanism underlying that dependence. I wish to show here that a substantial part of it is a consequence of polarization which occurs when radiation is reflected and scattered by a terrestrial surface, and that this effect is particularly significant for surfaces with structures which have undergone orientation by the wind.
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