How does the timing and length of the Arctic sea ice melt season influence the Arctic ice mass budget? In this paper, satellite data from QSCAT on the timing and location of surface melting of Arctic sea ice are compared to dynamic-thermodynamic sea ice model simulations. The QSCAT melt data are also employed as boundary conditions on the modeled melt season, to assess their impact on the mass budget. This approach cna be used as an independent verification of the hypothesis that the length of the melt season has a strong influence over mean Arctic ice thicknesses.