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Albedo is a measurement of how much a surface reflects solar energy. Snow and ice are substances with high albedo. Ice reflects 50-70% of sunlight, and snow bounces back as much as 90% of solar radiation. The more energy a surface reflects, the cooler it and it's surrounding environment will be, which is partly why Earth's poles, with its great caps of ice, are so cold and a key controller of the planet's climate and weather.

Measuring albedo is an important detail for understanding how snow and ice influence Earth's weather and climate, and for making forecasts, predicting spring flooding, and powering computer models.

NASA has albedo data generated from space-based instruments such as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) as well as from various field campaigns and computer models.

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Discover and Visualize Snow/Ice Albedo Data
NASA data help us understand Earth's changing systems in more detail than ever before, and visualizations bring these data to life, making Earth science concepts accessible, beautiful, and impactful.
Data visualization is a powerful tool for analysis, trend and pattern recognition, and communication. Our resources help you find world-class data visualizations to complement and enhance your research. We also have tools and tutorials to help you translate snow and ice albedo data into compelling visuals.
Snow/Ice Albedo Data and Tools
Snow/Ice Albedo Data Catalog
This rectangular image shows snow cover around the Lake Superior region of North America. The base of the image is a color landscape image of the ground with clouds. Overlaid across the image are patches of yellow, orange, and red pixels to mark areas where snow is reflecting light.
This visualization is a daily composite of snow cover and albedo derived from the MODIS/Aqua Snow Cover 5-Min L2 Swath 500m dataset. Pixels in yellow represent areas with low albedo, orange is moderate albedo, and red are locations with high levels of reflectance.

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