The surface albedo and soil moisture of sand dune and biological soil crusts were measured concurrently in field plots of a moving sand area and an artificially revegetated area established in Shapotou in southeasten edge of the Tengger Desert in 1964. The researchers mainly aimed to study the relationships between surface albedo and solar elevation angle and surface soil moisture. The empirical formulas relating surface albedo to solar elevation angle and to surface soil moisture were proposed. The results indicated that surface albedo has an exponential function with solar elevation angle, and the normalized surface albedo decreases exponentially with the increasing of surface soil moisture in condition of removing the solar elevation angle effects. Moreover, the surface albedo of sand dune was found to be more sensitive to the response of surface soil moisture than that of biological soil crusts. The response of surface albedo to soil moisture varied with land surface types, which may be related to soil color or/and innate attributes of soils.

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