Clear-Sky Albedo Measured at Seven Rangeland Sites in Southwest Idaho

As a component of the energy budget, albedo is used in the calculation of evapotranspiration in many natural resource and hydrologic models. There are few measurements of albedo over sagebrush-dominated rangelands, so albedo was measured at seven sites on the Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed in southwest Idaho during 1989-1993. For all sites, the average albedo measured during midday under clear skies was 0.14 during the growing season. Albedo varied from a low of 0.11 during June at the Mountain big sagebrush site to a high of 0.17 at the low-elevation Wyoming big sagebrush site. Albedo varied little between about 2 h after sunrise and 2 h before sunset.