What reflects more sunlight?

Question

Ice sheets at the north and south pole where light isnt focused, or large, white cloud tops at the equator, like the ones always billowing in the indian ocean near and around australia?

And what about the constant cloud cover over antarctica, and the canada and russia? Are these responsible for reflecting a lot of light?

Answer 1

Clouds by far.  Also don't forget moisture in the atmosphere which is over 100 times more prevalent and effective than CO2.  

Right - the angle of the sun also plays the largest role in heat transmitted to the earth's surface.

Do you monitor weather, water vapor and possible rain/snow here:

http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_...

http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_...

You can even watch coming cold jet streams (from Arctic) which will clash with equatorial jet streams to cause extreme weather.

Answer 2

Only a little over 10% of the earth surface is ice covered. At any given time 60% or more of the earth’s surface is shaded with cloud cover, making clouds a much greater factor in determining the total albedo of earth's climate systems when compared with ice sheet cover. Too much emphasis is put on the reflection off ice sheets because it assumes the skies over the ice sheets to be crystal clear and unaffected by cloud cover. Of course this is not the case, and it is reasonable to think that some percentage of ice is covered by clouds like the rest of the planet, which would reflect part of the sunlight before it ever reaches the ice.

Answer 3

Clouds are a mixed bag.  They can reflect heat or they can keep it in.  A cloudy day is cooler, but a cloudy night is warmer.  It's pretty much a wash.  The observed changes in cloud cover have had little effect.

Ice can only reflect heat, not hold it in.  So the observed loss of ice is a serious problem in accelerating global warming.