full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Zoe Pierrat: Earth's mysterious red glow, explained

Unscramble the Blue Letters


In 2009, a sletatile circled Earth, methodically scanning and sorting the wavelengths reflecting off the planet’s srcaufe. Researchers were looking for the spectral signature of carbon dioxide when they noticed something baffling: an unexpected wavelength of unknown origin. They tried looking at erath with only this wavelength, and saw the planet covered in a red hue of vayring intensity. This couldn’t have been rtefceled sunlight because it was a wavelength that never escapes the Sun’s outer atmosphere. And it didn’t correspond with densely populated areas, suggesting it wasn’t human-made either. In fact, it was emanating from pelcas with lots of plants: the Amazon basin, nerhtron evrergeen forests, and croplands of the Midwestern US were all ablaze. So, what was going on?

Open Cloze


In 2009, a _________ circled Earth, methodically scanning and sorting the wavelengths reflecting off the planet’s _______. Researchers were looking for the spectral signature of carbon dioxide when they noticed something baffling: an unexpected wavelength of unknown origin. They tried looking at _____ with only this wavelength, and saw the planet covered in a red hue of _______ intensity. This couldn’t have been _________ sunlight because it was a wavelength that never escapes the Sun’s outer atmosphere. And it didn’t correspond with densely populated areas, suggesting it wasn’t human-made either. In fact, it was emanating from ______ with lots of plants: the Amazon basin, ________ _________ forests, and croplands of the Midwestern US were all ablaze. So, what was going on?

Solution


  1. surface
  2. earth
  3. places
  4. evergreen
  5. reflected
  6. varying
  7. satellite
  8. northern

Original Text


In 2009, a satellite circled Earth, methodically scanning and sorting the wavelengths reflecting off the planet’s surface. Researchers were looking for the spectral signature of carbon dioxide when they noticed something baffling: an unexpected wavelength of unknown origin. They tried looking at Earth with only this wavelength, and saw the planet covered in a red hue of varying intensity. This couldn’t have been reflected sunlight because it was a wavelength that never escapes the Sun’s outer atmosphere. And it didn’t correspond with densely populated areas, suggesting it wasn’t human-made either. In fact, it was emanating from places with lots of plants: the Amazon basin, northern evergreen forests, and croplands of the Midwestern US were all ablaze. So, what was going on?

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
chlorophyll fluorescence 5
carbon dioxide 2
excited electrons 2


Important Words


  1. ablaze
  2. amazon
  3. areas
  4. atmosphere
  5. basin
  6. carbon
  7. circled
  8. correspond
  9. covered
  10. croplands
  11. densely
  12. dioxide
  13. earth
  14. emanating
  15. escapes
  16. evergreen
  17. fact
  18. forests
  19. hue
  20. intensity
  21. lots
  22. methodically
  23. midwestern
  24. northern
  25. noticed
  26. origin
  27. outer
  28. places
  29. planet
  30. populated
  31. red
  32. reflected
  33. reflecting
  34. researchers
  35. satellite
  36. scanning
  37. signature
  38. sorting
  39. spectral
  40. suggesting
  41. sunlight
  42. surface
  43. unexpected
  44. unknown
  45. varying
  46. wavelength
  47. wavelengths