Zege, E., Malinka, A., Katsev, I., Prikhach, A., Heygster, G., Istomina, L., Birnbaum, G. and Schwarz, P. (2015) Algorithm to retrieve the melt pond fraction and the spectral albedo of Arctic summer ice from satellite optical data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 163 . pp. 153-164. DOI 10.1016/j.rse.2015.03.012.

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Abstract

A new algorithmto retrieve characteristics (albedo and melt pond fraction) of summer ice in the Arctic fromoptical
satellite data is described. In contrast to other algorithms this algorithm does not use a priori values of the
spectral albedo of the sea-ice constituents (such asmelt ponds,white ice etc.). Instead, it is based on an analytical
solution for the reflection from sea ice surface. The algorithm includes the correction of the sought-for ice and
ponds characteristics with the iterative procedure based on the Newton–Raphson method. Also, it accounts for
the bi-directional reflection from the ice/snow surface, which is particularly important for Arctic regions where
the sun is low. The algorithm includes an original procedure for the atmospheric correction, as well. This algorithm
is implemented as computer code called Melt Pond Detector (MPD). The input to the current version of
the MPD algorithm is the MERIS Level 1B data, including the radiance coefficients at ten wavelengths and the
solar and observation angles (zenith and azimuth). Also, specific parameters describing surface and atmospheric
state can be set in a configuration input file. The software output is the map of the melt ponds area fraction and
the spectral albedo of sea-ice in HDF5 format. The numerical verification shows that theMPD algorithm provides
more accurate results for the light ponds than for the dark ones. The spectral albedo is retrieved with high accuracy
for any type of ice and ponds.

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