Surface melt indicators

Antarctic sea ice

SMOS satellite measurements are used during the freezing season to measure the thickness of thin sea ice of less than 50 centimeters thick.   In summer, the data becomes highly unreliable for sea ice thickness since it is heavily affected by surface melting on the ice (and melting of the snow layer on top of the ice) as soon as temperatures get above the melting point.  Roughly speaking, the measurements get more strongly affected when surface melting is stronger, and so it gives indirect information about the strength of the surface melt.  The data is also strongly affected by sea ice concentration.

The graph above was calculated using pixel counting on the SMOS images on the Uni Bremen website.  (In fact, these calculations have been refactored in the meantime to use the Bremen numeric data files instead of the images).   Low values in the graphs would correspond to more wetness on the sea ice (and/or lower sea ice concentration) and hence stronger surface melt.  The algorithm interpolates missing data from nearby pixels.

Arctic sea ice

Data files