Land surface albedo is one of most important parameters in weather and climate numeric models. The albedo differences between urban and rural land surfaces and the albedo variations due to urbanization have not been well studied. In this study, temporal comparisons of albedoes in the urban, rural and hill regions of the Beijing area in China were analyzed by converting broad albedoes from narrow band reflectances using NASA pathfinder released reflectance and NDVI data. Results showed that with increased urbanization the original albedoes exhibited a decreasing trend and the urban areas had lower albedoes than the rural areas. In the hill area with dense vegetation, there were the lowest albedoes. Monthly measurements of albedo variation in the urban and rural regions showed that the albedoes have obvious seasonal unimodal trends. In the summer the albedoes are the highest while in the winter, the albedoes are lowest. For the hill area, results also showed that the albedoes have obvious seasonal characteristics. The maximal value occurs during May and July. The results can be used to adjust numerical model parameters to improve urban land surface simulation.

Date Published: 9 October 2007
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 6679, Remote Sensing and Modeling of Ecosystems for Sustainability IV, 66790H (9 October 2007); doi: 10.1117/12.731303

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6679:
Remote Sensing and Modeling of Ecosystems for Sustainability IV
Wei Gao; Susan L. Ustin, Editor(s)