Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => The Environment => Topic started by: Sean Moore on 05/07/2008 13:16:01
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Sean Moore asked the Naked Scientists:
Hey Chris.
Obviously I love the podcast (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/podcasts/). Only a fool couldn't.
Does the level of UV effect how quickly snow melts?
Sean Moore
-Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
What do you think?
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Although UV light contains more energy than visible light, snow is a very good reflector of UV ...
The measured UV albedo values of most natural surfaces are smaller than 10% (Feister et al., 1995; McKenzie
et al., 1996), but for fresh pure snow UV albedos near unity have been reported (Grenfell et al., 1994; Wuttke et
al., 2006).
http://www.atmos-chem-phys.org/7/2759/2007/acp-7-2759-2007.pdf
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Good summary, thanks RD. This would explain why skiing is so good for getting a tan, especially under your chin!