Word: summering
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...scientists studying the health of Arctic sea ice, satellite observations are absolutely essential for providing the big picture. It was satellites that revealed in September 2007 a record minimum ice coverage in the region - the result of a massive summer melt. And it was satellites that showed in 2008 and 2009 the modest recovery of late-summer Arctic ice that suggested to some that the specter of a totally ice-free polar ocean might be somewhat less imminent than feared...
...findings add another wrinkle to a problem climate scientists have been warning about since the record melt of 2007: after each summer meltback, the Arctic Ocean refreezes completely in winter. The problem is that much of that refreezing creates a relatively thin layer of so-called first-year ice. "It's weaker than thick, multiyear ice," says University of Colorado scientist James Maslanik, "and less resistant to melting...
...says Stroeve, "based on what 'typical' ice looked like at that time. We know there are errors with the measurements." The weakness in multiyear ice also suggests that if the unfavorable winds and currents that caused the 2007 meltback should recur, the Arctic Ocean could undergo another especially dramatic summer melt. Not just the first-year ice might go, but also some of the "rotten" multiyear ice that Barber encountered...
That in turn would trigger one of the many positive feedback mechanisms that could speed up the warming effects of greenhouse gases. Open ocean reflects less of the Sun's energy than ice does, so a large-scale summer melt would mean more absorption of heat in the ocean. The warmer ocean would heat the air above it, which would slow the refreezing of ice in winter, which would in turn become even more susceptible to melting in summer...
Because of the increasing number of reports, the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) last summer held two National Bed Bug Symposiums in Newark, N.J., and Seattle, in hopes of educating hotel operators about the pests. The Environmental Protection Agency also held its first bedbug summit last year in Washington. The bugs are most common in big cities, including New York, San Francisco and Toronto, but the number of infestations is sharply on the rise around the world, in part because of the increase in international travel. Bedbugs don't crawl in themselves; they're carried in by visitors...