Upward and downward fluxes of shortwave radiation (0.28520¿. With near overcast conditions (N>0.7), linear decrease is also found from 0.93 at A<2¿ to 0.84¿0.005 for A<18¿. The nonovercast results are compared with albedos reported for other Antarctic plateau stations. The higher values at the South Pole are attributed to slower rates of surface snow metamorphosis there due to lower maximum sun elevations and absence of diurnal radiative flux and temperature cycles. Arguments are presented to resolve conflicting reports that cloudiness both increases and decreases the snow albedo, and our results show that the effect of clouds depends on the solar elevation angle.