713
The strength of such a formulation over that used by Ahmad and Deering directly on the albedo variation, is
that this parameterization of R H allows the albedo to be calculated under varying degrees of diffuse
irradiance, whereas the former does not.
30° (662 nm)
90° (662 nm)
30° (826 nm)
90° (826 nm)
prairie (June)
0.037
0.031
0.471
0.397
prairie (August)
0.046
0.042
0.415
0.342
alkali flat
0.655
0.601
0.675
0.621
bare soil
0.116
0.275
0.163
0.179
desert scrub
0.518
0.549
0.635
0.585
Table I. Summary of albedo values for various cover types for two solar elevation angles
30° (662 nm)
90° (662 nm)
30° (826 nm)
90° (826 nm)
E, atmosphere 1 /
Wm' 2
680
1525
433
993
Ej atmosphere 2 /
Wm 2
462
1287
302
852
Table II. Summary of E, values for two solar elevation angles for atmospheres 1 and 2
4.2. Effect of Aerosols
Simulations were also run for a sky radiance distribution calculated with atmospheric parameters relevant to a
relatively high concentration of aerosols typical of urban/industrial areas (atmosphere 2). The sky radiance
distribution of this atmosphere varies significantly from that used in the simulations described above, especially
at low solar elevation angles. The percentage of diffuse irradiance from both atmospheres (SKYL) is presented
in Figure 2. One can see that SKYL for the 826 nm wavelength is typically of the order of 0.05 less than that
for 662 nm, and that there is a significantly higher proportion of diffuse irradiance for atmosphere 2 than
atmosphere 1. the values for 90° solar elevation being around 0.26 and 0.17 respectively (662 nm).
From Figure 4, it can be seen that the albedo values do not vary significantly with aerosol loading, except at low
Sun angles where the sky for atmosphere 2 has a higher proportion of diffuse irradiance than atmosphere 1.