Earth's spectral albedo from 0.5 to 4.4 um

Montanes-Rodrig, P.; Palle, E.; Goode, P. R.; Koonin, S. E.
Bibliographical reference

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2005, abstract #SA53B-1175

Advertised on:
12
2005
Number of authors
4
IAC number of authors
0
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
We have analyzed spectroscopic earthshine data to determine Earth's nightly spectral albedos covering the visible, near and middle infrared spectral ranges. Observations in the visible were undertaken from Palomar Observatory with the spectrograph in the Palomar 60" telescope and with the echelle spectrograph of the InfraRed Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The observing runs were chosen near the quarter moon to reduce the background glow produced by the moonshine (bright side of the Moon). Although observations were taken on different nights, the similarity of lunar phases and comparable cloud cover conditions for the monitored part of the Earth's surface, allow us to derive, for the first time, an apparent albedo of the Earth covering the entire spectral range from 0.5 to 4.4 microns.