Seasonal Sea Ice Thickness Variability between Canada and the North Pole

This study presents large scale sea ice melt estimates derived by comparing AEM ice thickness surveys conducted in the Lincoln Sea (spring) and Nares Strait (summer) in 2009. The exact same ice was not surveyed during both campaigns but comparison of ice thickness was conducted between regions representative of the same ice. Sea ice was tracked using a time series of 230 MODIS and ASAR images. Only level ice thickness measurements were compared by removing ridged ice regions detected within the laser surface profile. The spring profile had a level ice thickness of 3.5 m and the summer profile 2.3 m, a total melt of 1.2 m. Ice melt was 0.87-0.95 m, equivalent to a net heat of 262.3-286.4 MJ m-2. Snow melt was 0.25-0.33 m equivalent to a net heat of 28.5-37.6 MJ m-2. The EM instrument responded differently over ridged ice during the two seasons which was likely due to a mean instrument footprint difference of 25 m and therefore could not be used to derive melt for ridged sea ice.