Just as I was getting impressed with the praiseworthy quality of an artice about Antartica,
a questionable word usage jumped out at me:
" Yet it is hard to guage what these dramatic developments portend, for despite scientists'
best efforts, Anarctica - highest, dryest, coldest continent on the planet - remains
a climatological cipher.

What in hell does that mean? I think it was supposed to mean "a puzzle" "a mystery"
"a conundrum" or something of the sort. In simpest terms "cipher" means "zero".
I cannot think of any way in which "cipher" makes sense. Can you?

cipher
n.
5ME cifre < OFr cyfre < ML cifra < Ar Rifr, Refr, a cipher, nothing < Rafara, to be empty6
1 the symbol 0, indicating a value of naught; zero
2 a person or thing of no importance or value; nonentity
3 a) a system of secret writing based on a key, or set of predetermined rules or symbols b) a message in such writing c) the key to such a system (see also CODE)
4 an intricate weaving together of letters, as a monogram
5 an Arabic numeral
vi.
1 [Now Rare] to solve arithmetic problems
2 to use secret writing
vt.
1 [Now Rare] to solve by arithmetic
2 to express in secret writing

I think they were misusing the word, perhaps because "mystery" didn't sound mysterious enough. :)

Those definitions you posted puzzle me too. I expected to see the first definition to be something related to secret codes. Specifically I would have said an encoded text, with an emphasis on the use of a system to encode by rearranging letters. rearranging looks weird; is that spelled correctly? I had no idea cipher had any relation to zero.

Despite scientists' best efforts, Anarctica - highest, dryest, coldest continent on the planet - remains a climatological [insert "cryptic"] cipher.

What the hell do they mean "cipher"?

Nothing? No. Just sloppy writing.

to cipher: to ascertain by mathematics

The Antarctic climate may be a cryptogram to which we do not have the cipher.

We have a member who has experience in cryptography. I'd be interested to know his take on this.

I have enciphered plain-language messages and deciphered encrypted messages in my career, and always took it for granted that I was either making the underlying text unreadable in the former case or readable in the latter, using a cipher (or key).
So I would have to come down on the side of those who feel that cipher, as used in this case, was meant to evoke an image of mystery or insolubility, but was in fact used incorrectly.

I have enciphered plain-language messages and deciphered encrypted messages
Wow! I am impressed! Coo-ool! And thanks for the word 'enciphered'--I can tell it just rolled right off your tongue, whereas it might never have occurred to me.