> Space Weather News for July 8, 2016  
  > http://spaceweather.com  
    
  Here's an interesting article. It covers the ice melt of the Arctic.  
    
  Each year huge amounts of Arctic ice melts off, sometimes as much  
  as 10 million square kilometers. It can melt at the rate of 26,000  
  square miles or so per day...give or take.  
    
  Actually, this is pretty normal. An article on this by Anthony Watts  
  dated July 9th, 2016 talks about this in great detail.  
    
  This happens each year, but there is wide variability in the amount  
  of melt-off, according to an article in a 2011 Journal of Geophysical  
  Research. And according to that article, the Arctic Sea Ice coverage  
  can vary over a million square kilometers from year to year.  
    
  A variety of natural factors can influence the amount of melt, having to  
  do with the Arctic's own variability patterns over time.  
    
  Also...satellite data can be problematical in that meltwater laying on the  
  surface of the ice is seen by satellites as `open water'. Not to mention  
  that different analysts will get different results. Satellites reading  
  meltwater on the surface of the ice means compromised satellite data.  
    
  So...if more or less ice melts off in a given year, there is no cause for  
  alarm. It is a natural phenomena over which we humans have no control  
  whatever.  
  --- SBBSecho 2.27-Win32  
   * Origin: Telnet://valhalla.synchro.net - Richmond, Virginia (1:275/93)