> 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)