Retrieval of Arctic Sea Ice Surface Melt Onset In 2016 From FY-3B/MWRI Data

Sea ice melt onset (MO) is a parameter related to the melt progress and it is an important predictor of the September sea ice minimum extent of Arctic. Using brightness temperatures of the Microwave Radiometer Imager (MWRI) onboard the FengYun (FY)-3B satellite, we retrieved MO and early melt onset (EMO) in the year of 2016 by passive microwave (PMW) algorithm with a higher resolution than the current MO product. The result shows that MO and EMO tend to be earlier on first-year ice (FYI) and be later on multi-year ice (MYI) compared with AIR SAT as well as MO and EMO products based on the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I).