Solved cryptogram
Fresh snow bounces sunlight straight back to space, and open ocean swallows nearly all of it.
Earth Science Facts, sourced to UCAR Center for Science Education.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 76 letters over 20 different ones, graded medium.
Or go to the puzzle’s own page first.
What it means
A surface that reflects has a high albedo. New snow sits near ninety percent and dark open water near six, so the same sunbeam either leaves again or stays as heat depending on what it lands on. That difference makes ice self reinforcing in both directions: ice keeps a region cold, and once it goes the water underneath absorbs more and warms faster. Deserts, forests, cities and clouds each have their own value in between.
The claim comes from UCAR Center for Science Education.
- SourceUCAR Center for Science Education
- CollectionEarth Science Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length76 letters, 20 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- UCAR Center for Science Educationmedium, 72 letters
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- UCAR Center for Science Educationmedium, 71 letters
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Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
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