Detection of melt onset over the northern Canadian Arctic Archipelago sea ice from RADARSAT, 1997–2014

We present an algorithm to detect melt onset over Arctic sea ice using high resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images from RADARSAT. The algorithm is based on the temporal evolution of the SAR backscatter coefficient (σ°), using an ice type specific threshold approach that also corrects for incidence angle variation. Using 4457 RADARSAT images, the algorithm was applied over sea ice in the northern Canadian Arctic Archipelago that low...