The latest (through November 2017) update of the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) data sets are depicted below. The record is still brief and precision and accuracy remain uncertain ( especially for the anisotropic shortwave radiance ). But albedo (calculated as a percentage of mean top of the atmosphere outgoing shortwave radiance as a percentage of mean top of the atmosphere incoming shortwave radiance ) is interesting. Albedo averages around 29.1% for the period, varying from the conventional “around 30%”. This is also much less than the roughly 31% of the NASA GISS Model E AR5 simulation. The roughly 2% difference in albedo is nearly 7W/m^2 absolute difference. Another aspect of albedo is the marked decline for 2015 through 2017. With respect to global mean surface temperature anomaly, albedo is the most correlated (r=0.79) CERES parameter, perhaps due to the decrease of cloud pressure ( increase of cloud height ).
