Decadal to seasonal variability of Arctic sea ice albedo

A controlling factor in the seasonal and climatological evolution of the sea ice cover is its albedo alpha. Here we analyze Arctic data from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) Polar Pathfinder and assess the seasonality and variability of broadband albedo from a 23 year daily record. We produce a histogram of daily albedo over ice covered regions in which the principal albedo transitions are seen; high albedo in late winter and spring, the onset of snowmelt and melt pond formation in the summer, and fall freezeup. The bimodal late summer distribution demonstrates the combination of the poleward progression of the onset of melt with the coexistence of perennial bare ice with melt ponds and open water, which then merge to a broad peak at alpha greater than or similar to 0.5. We find the interannual variability to be dominated by the low end of the alpha distribution, highlighting the controlling influence of the ice thickness distribution and large-scale ice edge dynamics. The statistics obtained provide a simple framework for model studies of albedo parameterizations and sensitivities. Citation: Agarwal, S., W. Moon, and J. S. Wettlaufer (2011), Decadal to seasonal variability of Arctic sea ice albedo, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L20504, doi: 10.1029/2011GL049109.