Clear-Sky Albedo Measured at Seven Rangeland Sites in Southwest Idaho

Abstract

As a component of the energy budget, albedo is used in the calculation of evapotranspiration in many natural resource and hydrologic models. There are few measurements of albedo over sagebrush-dominated rangelands, so albedo was measured at seven sites on the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed in southwest Idaho during 1989–1993. For all sites, the average albedo measured during midday under clear skies was 0.14 during the growing season. Albedo varied from a low of 0.11 during June at the Mountain big sagebrush site to a high of 0.17 at the low-elevation Wyoming big sagebrush site. Albedo varied little between about 2 h after sunrise and 2 h before sunset.