posted on Jan, 24 2006 @ 06:51 PM
I hypothesise that the mechanism for global warming of melting ice reveals black earth which absorbs more heat is incorrect...primarily because that
is not true.
Light from the Sun is not thermal but visible and thus the heat on the Earth is caused by reflected thermal energy after the visible energy is
absorbed into the Earth. So this phenomenon occurs with Ice too.
It's obvious that snow doesn't reflect light so efficiently because it melts faster on covered surfaces which conduct heat better.
I think simply ice having more heat energy therefore absorbs more energy from the Sun making the surrounding region colder, but the same amount of
energy is coming to the Earth so if there isn't a mechanism to actually create the Ice (i.e. heat transfer to the oceans or such) then the ice will
simply melt.
So the creation and melting of ice has little to do with ambient temperature (I've seen snow survive a 25 C day and I've seen snow melt when it's
freezing out) but more to do with how much energy the snow//ice is receiving from the Sun.
Thus...during Summers when the angle is higher...more energy is received, thus snow usually melts.
So a higher out-put of Solar Energy is I think more responsible for ice-packs melting, not atmospheric temperature or surrounding exposure of soil.