> 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)