Investigation of the Earth’s Albedo Using Meteorological Parameters over Maiduguri, Nigeria

Abstract

The present study estimate and investigate the variation of albedo for Maiduguri situated in the Sahelian region of Nigeria, using meteorological data of global solar radiation obtained from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) extending for a period between 1984 to 2021. Investigation was carried out on the variation of albedo with surface temperature, maximum wavelength, clearness index, global solar radiation, relative humidity and mean temperature. The study found that the estimated surface albedo exhibited a direct opposite relationship with the clearness index, an inverse relationship with the emitting Earth’s surface temperature and a direct relationship with the wavelength for the location. The highest value of 0.5125 and lowest value of 0.3344 were found in August and November respectively. The emitting Earth surface temperature ranged between 232.8674 K in August and 251.7177 K in November. This is in agreement with the standard emitting Earth surface temperature (255.0000 K). The values of the maximum emitting wavelength were found to be > 4 indicating longwave radiation which is within the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The results from this study will be useful for the design of solar energy collectors and researches on atmospheric radiative transfer.