Articles | Volume 10, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2217-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-2217-2016
Research article
 | 
26 Sep 2016
Research article |  | 26 Sep 2016

The impact of melt ponds on summertime microwave brightness temperatures and sea-ice concentrations

Stefan Kern, Anja Rösel, Leif Toudal Pedersen, Natalia Ivanova, Roberto Saldo, and Rasmus Tage Tonboe

Viewed

Total article views: 4,748 (including HTML, PDF, and XML)
HTML PDF XML Total Supplement BibTeX EndNote
2,652 1,915 181 4,748 479 138 176
  • HTML: 2,652
  • PDF: 1,915
  • XML: 181
  • Total: 4,748
  • Supplement: 479
  • BibTeX: 138
  • EndNote: 176
Views and downloads (calculated since 15 Jan 2016)
Cumulative views and downloads (calculated since 15 Jan 2016)

Cited

Discussed (final revised paper)

Latest update: 28 Mar 2024
Download
Short summary
Sea ice, frozen seawater floating on polar oceans, is covered by meltwater puddles, so-called melt ponds, during summer. Methods used to compute Arctic sea-ice concentration (SIC) from microwave satellite data are influenced by melt ponds. We apply eight such methods to one microwave dataset and compare SIC with visible data. We conclude all methods fail to distinguish melt ponds from leads between ice floes; SIC biases are negative (positive) for ponded (non-ponded) sea ice and can exceed 20 %.