Abstract
To establish under what condition silicon cells can be used for the determination of albedo, measurements as well as calculations were undertaken. The results show that silicon cells (also sold as Sol-A-Meters) give “true” albedo values for rocks, concrete, sand and water, and slightly higher than true values for green plants (26% instead of 23%), but far too high values for snow fields (89% instead of 80% for freshly fallen snow), and, presumably, for clouds. This can be explained by the particular spectral response of these sensors. Hence, albedo measurements with silicon cells can be made for almost all natural surface materials with the exception of snow.
