The surface albedo is of major importance in determining the absorption of solar energy.
Large variations are possible due to vegetation.
Generally albedo decreases for a given vegetation type as the height of the vegetation increases because of internal reflections, though for short, sparse vegetation this may not be true if the albedo of the soil is low relative to that of the vegetation. Albedo also decreases generally for soil and vegetation as the surface wetness increases. The range of albedo for snow-free conditions is from about 0.1 for tropical forest to about 0.4 for some dry, sandy surfaces. However, this would be an upper limit to spatial variations and is only conceivable at one place with an extreme climatic change or extensive human intervention such as deforestation or irrigation on highly reflective soil. Much larger variations in albedo can occur due to snow cover, which may have an albedo of over 0.9.