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I saw an article lately that says some streets in LA would be now painted in white to avoid the light to be absorbed and then transformed into heat. But what happen to that light that doesn't get absorbed? Are they reflecting to somewhere and transforming the heat somewhere else? Does a percentage of the light escape from our atmosphere and some percentage stay to, finally, transform into heat?

I am wondering how is it possible that white roofs remove locally the temperature than a black roofs.

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    $\begingroup$ You pretty much answered your own question. $\endgroup$
    – JMLCarter
    Commented Sep 16, 2017 at 14:07

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A white roof scatters light in all directions. A lot of that light will indeed escape through the atmosphere back into space so that the roof stays cool. A black roof on the other hand absorbs most if not all of the light that falls on it. It will get hot and heat up the air. Inside the house it will also be warmer.

A city with white roofs will be cooler that a city with black roofs in the same weather conditions.

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