From Bright Windows to Dark Spots: Snow Cover Controls Melt Pond Optical Properties During Refreezing

Melt ponds have a strong impact on the Arctic surface energy balance and the ice-associated ecosystem because they transmit more solar radiation compared to bare ice. In the existing literature, melt ponds are considered as bright windows to the ocean, even during freeze-up in autumn. In the central Arctic during the summer-autumn transition in 2018, we encountered a situation where more snow accumulated on refrozen melt ponds compared to the adjacent bare ice, leading to a reduction in light transmittance of the ponds even below that of bare ice. Results from a radiative transfer model support this finding. This situation has not been described in the literature before, but has potentially strong implications for example on autumn ecosystem activity, oceanic heat budget, and thermodynamic ice growth.