Ice and snow play a crucial role in regulating Earth's climate by reflecting a significant portion of incoming solar radiation back into space. The percentage of solar energy reflected by ice varies depending on several factors, including the type of ice, the angle of sunlight, and the presence of impurities. However, fresh, clean snow can reflect up to 90% of incoming solar radiation, while sea ice typically reflects around 50-70%.

The extent of ice and snow cover on Earth's surface significantly impacts the absorption of solar radiation. When large areas are covered by ice and snow, a greater amount of sunlight is reflected back into space, contributing to a cooler planet. Conversely, when ice and snow cover decreases, more sunlight is absorbed by the Earth's surface, leading to warming.

This feedback loop plays a critical role in regulating Earth's temperature. As the planet warms, ice and snow cover tends to retreat, exposing more land and ocean surfaces that absorb more sunlight, further exacerbating the warming trend. This phenomenon highlights the importance of preserving ice and snow cover to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Dr Murtadha Shukur thank you for your contribution to the discussion

Most of Earth's energy comes from the Sun. Snow and ice can reflect 50- 90% of incoming sunlight. As the Earth's average temperature rises, snow and ice cover decreases, increasing the amount sunlight being absorbed, and further contributing to global warming. The darker ocean reflects only 6 percent of the sun's energy and absorbs the rest, while sea ice reflects 50 to 70 percent of the incoming energy. Snow has an even higher ability to reflect solar energy than sea ice. Snow-covered sea ice reflects as much as 90 percent of the incoming solar radiation. The amount of solar radiation that is reflected from a surface is called albedo. Snow covered surfaces, such as the polar ice caps reflect between 80‐90percent of light energy away from their surface and therefore have a high albedo. Snow and ice surfaces in Polar Regions act as large 'mirrors' for solar radiation, and reflect most of it back to space. As a consequence, the amount of energy absorbed by the climate system is reduced even more than from geometric considerations only. Because of their light color, snow and ice also reflect more sunlight than open water or bare ground, so a reduction in snow cover and ice causes the Earth's surface to absorb more energy from the sun and become warmer. Snow, ice, and clouds have high albedos and reflect more energy than they absorb. Earth's average albedo is about 0.3. In other words, about 30 percent of incoming solar radiation is reflected back into space and 70 percent is absorbed. Bright surfaces like snow, ice, and clouds reflect the most energy (white), while dark surfaces like open ocean absorb the most (dark blue). Snow, ice, and clouds radiate less energy (light red) than the ocean or snow-free land surfaces (dark red). Snow is whiter than ice, so it acts as a reflector and insulator on top of glaciers. More than 80 to 90 percent of the sunlight falling on fresh snow is reflected back into space, compared to 15 to 35 percent of the sunlight reflected by most ice.