Surface albedo measurements in Mexico City metropolitan area

Optical and thermal properties of soils are important input data for the me teorological and photochemical modules of air quality models. As developmen t of these models increase on spatial resolution good albedo data become mo re important. In this paper measurements of surface albedo of UV (295-385 n m) and visible (450-550 nm) radiation are reported for different urban and rural surfaces in the vicinity of Mexico City. It was found for the downtow n zone an average albedo value of 0.05 which is in very good agreement with reported values for urban surfaces. Our albedo values measured in UV regio n for grey cement and geen grass are of 0.10 and 0.009, respectively, and q uite similar to those found at the literature of 0.11 and 0.008 for those t ype of surfaces.