Surface albedo (the fraction of incoming solar radiation reflected by a surface) depends strongly on land cover type, with darker, densely vegetated surfaces generally having low albedo (absorbing more solar radiation) and bright, sparsely vegetated or bare surfaces such as sand and desert soils having much higher albedo (reflecting more solar radiation); the magnitude of an albedo change associated with a land-use/land-cover transition depends on how large the contrast in surface brightness is between the initial and final cover types.
Among the listed land-use/cover transitions, the change from savanna (a vegetated grassland/shrubland surface with a relatively low-to-moderate albedo, roughly 0.15-0.20) to desert (a largely bare,...
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