Land surface albedo directly affects surface energy and water balances, and its importance in weather forecasting and climate studies has been widely recognized. In the first part of this talk, fundamental processes affecting surface albedo will be overviewed. In general, bare soil albedo depends on soil color, soil moisture, and solar zenith angle (SZA), while the albedo of vegetated area depends on vegetation type, leaf-area index, fractional vegetation cover, and SZA. Snow albedo depends on snow age, depth, temperature, SZA, and pollutants in the snow.

Then, examples will be given to illustrate the role of surface albedo in weather forecasting (e.g., at NCEP and ECMWF) and climate (including palioclimate) studies (e.g. using the CCSM). Finally, issues related to the integration of surface albedo modeling and remote sensing will be discussed.