Measuring and Modelling the Climate Impacts of Reflective Surfaces
A ground-up methodology for quantifying what reflective surfaces actually do to Earth's energy balance.
There is still no universally accepted way to answer some deceptively simple questions: how much extra sunlight does a reflective intervention send back, where does that energy go, and how much of it genuinely leaves the Earth system? Most existing work starts from satellites or the top of the atmosphere. This paper reverses that perspective and starts from quantities that can be measured at the surface, then connects them upward through atmospheric data and simplified radiative transfer.
What it aims to establish
- A reproducible method any research group can apply
- A consistent basis for comparing different reflective technologies
- A bridge between field measurement and atmospheric modelling
- Foundations for future standards in reflective cooling assessment