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 represents a total reflection (a perfectly white surface). To get an idea of the relative values at play here, consider the following table.

Taking albedo into account will clearly affect the outcome of the model we’ve been working with. We were implicitly treating the Earth as if it were a perfect absorber—an object with albedo 0—which would explain why our final result was so far off base. Let’s see how our result changes when we jettison this assumption. We will stick with the simplification we’ve been working with all along so far and give a single average albedo value for the Earth as a whole, a value which is generally referred to as the “planetary albedo.” More nuanced energy

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