The term albus is Latin for ‘white’, and albedo means ‘whiteness’, but in astronomy and atmospheric sciences the ‘normal albedo’ refers to the normal reflectance (T n) potential or brightness of any solid, liquid or gaseous surface when illuminated vertically. For planets it is specifically ‘the proportion of the solar light incident upon an element of the surface of a planet which is again diffusely reflected from it’ Oxford English Dictionary; Mon. Not. Roy. Astr. Soc., 1859, 20, p. 103). It may be expressed as A = pq, where p at the phase angle zero is the ratio of brightness of a substance to the brightness of a perfectly diffusing disk under the same conditions; and qis a factor representing the phase law. The sunlight not reflected will be absorbed and heat the surface concerned, whether a planet, asteroid or satellite. Thus the albedo is the ratio of reflected radiation to incoming electromagnetic radiation. If 50% of that radiation is reflected the major albedo is indicated...
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Bibliography
Fairbridge, R. W. (1967) Albedo and reflectivity, in The Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences and Astrogeology (ed. R. W. Fairbridge). New York: Reinhold Publ. Corp., pp. 12–13.
Milton, S. (ed.) (1977) Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy. Cambridge: University Press, 495 pp.
Veverka, J. (1987) Albedo, in McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Vol. 1, pp. 309–10.
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Fairbridge, R.W. (1997). Albedo . In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Science. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4520-4_7
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