Inter-comparison of melt pond products from optical satellite imagery

Abstract

Given the importance that melt ponds have on the energy balance of summer sea ice, there have been several efforts to develop pan-Arctic datasets using satellite data. Here we intercompare three melt pond data sets that rely on multi-frequency optical satellite data. Early in the melt season, the three data sets have similar spatial patterns in melt pond fraction, but this agreement weakens as the melt season progresses despite relatively high interannual correlations in pond fractions between the data products. Most of the data sets do not exhibit trends towards increased melt pond fractions from 2002 to 2011 despite overall Arctic warming and earlier melt onset. Further comparisons are made against higher resolution optical data to assess relative accuracy. These comparisons reveal the challenges in retrieving melt ponds from coarse resolution satellite data, and the need to better discriminate between leads, small open water areas and melt ponds. Finally, we assess melt pond data sets as a function of ice type and how well they correlate with surface albedo. As expected, melt pond fractions are negatively correlated with surface albedo, though the strength of the correlation varies across products and regions. Overall, first-year ice has larger melt pond fractions than multi-year ice.