Analysis of summer 2002 melt extent on the Greenland ice sheet using MODIS and SSM/I data

Previous work has shown that the summer of 2002 had the greatest area of snow melt extent on the Greenland ice sheet ever recorded using passive-microwave data. In this paper, we compare the 0/spl deg/ isotherm derived from the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument, with Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I)-derived melt, at the time of the maximum melt extent in 2002. To validate the MODIS-derived land-surface temperatures (LSTs), we compared the MODIS LSTs with air temperatures from nine stations (using 11 different data points) and found that they agreed to within 2.3 /spl plusmn/ 2.09 /spl deg/C, with station temperatures consistently lower than the MODIS LSTs. According to the MODIS LST, the maximum surface melt extended to /spl sim/2300 m in southern Greenland; while the SSM/I measurements showed that the maximum melt extended to nearly 2700 m in southeastern Greenland. The MODIS and SSM/I data are complementary in providing detailed information about the progression of surface and near-surface melt on the Greenland ice sheet.