Arctic Sea Ice Melt Pond Depths and Locations from ICESat-2

Arctic multi-year sea ice region data provides locations and depths of melt ponds. The dataset is derived from ATLAS/ICESat-2 L2A Global Geolocated Photon Data using an autoadaptive algorithm. It was produced by NSIDC_CPRD and last updated in August 2020.

Use Cases

• Analyze melt pond depth distribution across the Arctic sea ice region to study seasonal melt progression.
• Correlate melt pond locations with sea ice age and type data to understand pond formation drivers.
• Validate and improve autoadaptive algorithms for extracting geophysical features from ICESat-2 photon data.
• Investigate interannual variability in melt pond characteristics for climate change impact assessments.

Strengths

• Derived from the ATLAS/ICESat-2 instrument, a state-of-the-art spaceborne lidar.
• Focuses on the multi-year Arctic sea ice region, a critical area for climate studies.
• Utilizes an autoadaptive algorithm designed for processing photon data.

Limitations

• Data last updated in 2020, potentially missing recent years of observations.
• Specific row count, geographic bounds, and temporal coverage are not provided.
• Derived from a single sensor type, limiting cross-validation with other methods.

Provenance

Source

NSIDC_CPRD, derived from NASA's ATLAS/ICESat-2 L2A (ATL03) data.

Collection Method

Calculated using an autoadaptive algorithm applied to geolocated photon data.

Freshness

Last updated on 2020-08-28.

Geography

Multi-Year Arctic Sea Ice Region.