This graphic shows the Earth's postition on its orbit around the sun on September 1st. At this time of the year we can see infallible signs of the approaching seasonal change. Therefore it may astonish us that we still "fly in the red sector" i.e. it will take another three weeks until day and night are of equal length and our planet arrives at the equinox point. Then the days will be shorter than the nights on the northern hemisphere, which gradually turns the warming into a cooling process for the northern half of the planet and vice versa for the southern hemisphere: All that manifests itself obviously in the Arctic Ocean and around Antarctica in the coming weeks (see http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/NEWIMAGES/arctic.seaice.color.000.png and http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/NEWIMAGES/antarctic.seaice.color.000.png).