Talk:Geometric albedo

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I have removed the following text from the article. It seems that it is not strictly true:

This concept arises because the reflectivity of all surfaces, natural or man-made, depends on the angle of incidence as well as the azimuth of the incoming light beam (more generally electromagnetic radiation).

Note that, strictly speaking, the geometric albedo is only defined

• for objects that are flat, at least on the spatial scale at which measurements are acquired (the angle of incidence is undefined or quite variable for non-flat objects), and
• for direct beam illumination (by definition diffuse illumination impinges on a surface from a variety of incidence angles).

A) The concept arises primarily because it is useful, I would say.

B) It's clearly defined quite well for non-flat objects since thet's where it's actually used Deuar 23:47, 30 June 2006 (UTC)