Radiative processes play a dominate role in the surface energy budget, surface-atmosphere energy exchanges, and, along with convective and advective processes, determine the vertical thermal profile of the atmosphere. Cryospheric surfaces (snow, ice, water) reflect 5-90% of incident solar energy, and correct representation of this reflectance is essential to accurately predict surface and atmospheric heating and cooling and phase changes of water. Despite this importance, the present generation of Earth system models (ESMs) used to better our understanding and project the impact of climate change fails to properly represent the spectral distribution of solar surface reflectance. This has created long-standing biases for shortwave radiation, causing models to produce results that are inconsistent with observations, such as the the heating rates in polar regions.