Because rotting takes place only by absorption of solar radiation, it progresses only during daylight hours.
As occurs in lake ice, river ice also may deteriorate and rot because of absorption of solar radiation.
Airglow, faint luminescence of Earth's upper atmosphere that is caused by air molecules' and atoms' selective absorption of solar ultraviolet and X-radiation.
The absorption of solar energy by dark skin, scales, feathers, or hair is often associated with increased heat gain and reduced metabolic rates.
Coloration may also play a part in the organism's energy budget, because biochromes create colour by the differential reflection and absorption of solar engery.
Arctic warming is further accelerated by the melting of the sea ice, which increases the absorption of solar heat, because the water absorbs more solar energy than does ice (which reflects it).
Deterioration, sometimes called rotting or candling because of the similarity of deteriorating ice crystals to an assembly of closely packed candles, is caused by the absorption of solar radiation.
Dusting the ice cover with a dark material such as coal dust or sand can increase the absorption of solar radiation and thus create areas of weakness that aid in an orderly breakup.
Absorption of solar radiation by ozone shields the terrestrial surface from harmful ultraviolet light and warms the stratosphere, producing maximum temperatures of −15 to 10 °C (5 to 50 °F) at an altitude of 50 km (30 miles).
This is due to less absorption of solar energy.
By absorption of solar heat, these particles, and the microbes they contain, melt into the ice.
