Three-year changes of surface albedo of degraded grassland and cropland surfaces in a semiarid area

Diurnal, seasonal and interannual variations of surface albedo of degraded grassland and cropland surfaces at a semiarid area of Tognyu have been investigated based on the continuous three years observational data from 2003 to 2005. The changes of surface albedo with solar elevation angle and soil moisture have been discussed also. It has been found that surface albedo has almost the same diurnal and seasonal variations on degraded grassland and cropland surfaces in the semiarid area, while surface albedo is large in winter and small in summer. The diurnal variation of the surface albedo has relationship with the weather condition. The diurnal cycle of the surface albedo likes the “U” shape curve in sunny day, while it is low-high after the rain, and high-low after the snow. The surface albedo has large variation in cloudy day, while it has no any variation in overcast day. The large difference of the surface albedo can be 0.04 in winter between two land surfaces, because the snow has large effects on the surface albedo in winter. The rainfall is an important factor in summer on the surface albedo, while the difference of the surface albedo is 0.01 only between two land surfaces. The differences of the surface albedo can also be 0.04 in autumn due to vegetation growing. The seasonal-average surface albeo from 2003–2005 is 0.25, 0.22, 0.24, 0.32 respectively in spring, summer, autumn and winter on the degraded grassland surface, while it is 0.25, 0.21, 0.22, 0.33 respectively in spring, summer, autumn and winter on the cropland surface. The surface albedo becomes smaller with the increase of solar elevation angle. When the solar elevation angle is greater than 40°, the surface albedo changes very little and tends to be a constant. The surface albedo has negative exponent functions with soil moisture in the growing season.