Local and regional albedo observations of arctic first‐year sea ice during melt ponding

Abstract

The shortwave surface albedo is a critical climatological parameter for sea ice, especially during the spring melt period when the ice contains a mixture of highly reflective (snow) and absorptive (melt ponds) surfaces. Broadband and spectral albedo measurements were made over numerous surface types on first‐year sea ice during the melt period in Wellington Channel, Nunavut during the Collaborative‐Interdisciplinary Cryospheric Experiment 1997. Albedo measurements ranged from 0.75 (moist snow) to 0.21 (dark melt ponds) with many unique intermediate surfaces. Aircraft videography collected throughout Wellington Channel and Lancaster Sound was processed to reveal four main surface cover types (wet snow, mixed type, light ponds, and dark ponds). Surface albedo data were applied to the aircraft observations to upscale surface albedo measurements to regional scales. Aircraft video‐derived regional albedo (mean = 0.55±0.02) were comparable to helicopter and satellite‐derived (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) albedo estimates.