Abstract
Albedo is the portion of energy from the Sun that is reflected by the earth's surface, thus being an important variable that controls climate and energy processes on Earth. Surface albedo is directly related to the characteristics of the Earth’s surface materials, making it a useful parameter to evaluate the effects of original soil cover replacement due to human occupation. This study evaluated the changes in the surface albedo values due to the conversion of vegetation to other land uses and to analyze the applicability of the use of albedo in the spatial delimitation of land-use classes in the transitional region between the Cerrado and Amazon biomes. Surface albedo measurements were obtained from processing of Landsat Thematic Mapper data in the Geographic Information System (GIS), and land-use information were collected using Google Earth high-resolution images. The results show that human activities such as the cultivation of crops and burning have contributed substantially to variations in the surface albedo, and that albedo estimates from Landsat imagery have the potential to help in the recognition and delimitation of features of land use and cover.
Highlights
INTRODUÇÃOThe Amazon rainforest exchanges large amounts of water and energy with the atmosphere, and is important in controlling the regional and global climate (Meir and Grace, 2005)
Albedo de superfície em diferentes classes de uso e cobertura do solo em região de floresta amazônica
Because our current knowledge of the climate system is still insufficient to solve some of the divergent predictions about this topic, it is important to improve the understanding of mechanisms of vegetation-climate interaction in forested regions such as the Amazon (Gonçalves et al, 2013), whose seasonal patterns of certain biophysical and climatic parameters show complex interactions (Vourlitis et al, 2014; Rodrigues et al, 2016b)
Summary
The Amazon rainforest exchanges large amounts of water and energy with the atmosphere, and is important in controlling the regional and global climate (Meir and Grace, 2005). Albedo is a parameter that varies both spatially and temporally given changes in surface properties, such as soil moisture and vegetation cover as well as changes in local natural light conditions (Franch et al, 2014). It influences the prediction of variables like near-surface temperature and relative humidity (Boussetta et al, 2015). This study evaluated the effect of conversion of native forest to different types of land use and cover (LUC) on the surface albedo values in the Amazon-Cerrado transition region, as well as the applicability of surface albedo to the identification and delimitation of different land-use classes
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