Spectrometry at
the Swamp Angel Study Plot on May 18, 2004 during our pilot study clearly
shows the difference in energy absorption across a wide range of radiation
between a dust contaminated snow surface and a 'clean' snow surface. At the
lower spectra, snow reflectance (albedo) was reduced from aprox. 0.86 (86%
reflected) in clean snow (blue) to aprox. 0.54 (54%) in dust-contaminated
snow (orange). The ramifications of this change in albedo, and the ability
to detect that change in remote-sensing imagery, are the subject of our study.
