Albedo planet would drop to about 0 °C. In contrast, if the entire Earth was covered by water — a so-called aquaplanet — the average temperature on the planet would rise to almost 27 °C. For land surfaces, it has been shown that the albedo at a particular solar zenith angle "θ" can be approximated by the proportionate sum of two terms: the directional-hemispherical reflectance at that solar zenith angle, formula_1, and the bi-hemispherical reflectance, formula_2, with formula_3 being the proportion of direct radiation from a given solar angle, and formula_4 being the proportion of diffuse illumination. Hence, the actual albedo
Albedo does dirty snow, the albedo of snow-covered sea ice is far higher than that of sea water. Sea water absorbs more solar radiation than would the same surface covered with reflective snow. When sea ice melts, either due to a rise in sea temperature or in response to increased solar radiation from above, the snow-covered surface is reduced, and more surface of sea water is exposed, so the rate of energy absorption increases. The extra absorbed energy heats the sea water, which in turn increases the rate at which sea ice melts. As with the preceding example of snowmelt, the