During summer, the fractional coverage of melt ponds on Arctic sea ice has a large impact on the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the ice, and hence the melt rate. Arctic pond coverage has been estimated from airborne camera imagery, but has not to date been quantified over a satellite-scale area through the melt season.

Spectral radiance observations from the MODIS sensor on NASA's EOS satellites (Aqua and Terra) are used to estimate pond fraction over the Chukchi Sea by applying the spectral properties of melt ponds, sea ice, and open water, which were measured during an on-ice campaign at Barrow, Alaska in June 2004. These coverages are compared to percentages derived from digital camera images acquired by Aerosonde UAVs deployed at Barrow during July 2003 and June 2004.