Snow plays a critical role in the global climate system by affecting energy fluxes across the ocean-sea ice-atmosphere interface, as well as influencing freshwater and brine fluxes in the marine cryosphere. The dynamic albedo of snow is of considerable importance, since energy absorption over a fresh snow covered surface can be half as much as a surface with no or ablating snow cover. The geophysical snow conditions, particularly snow melt, undergo rapid changes during the spring transitional period. Melt conditions vary from year to year and melt onset dates can be mapped with passive microwave measurements from instruments such as the SSM/I (Special Sensor Microwave Imager). This paper investigates the spatial and temporal melt onset date patterns over the Arctic Ocean from 1987 - 1996 as derived from SSM/I data. Analysis focuses on providing a climatology of snow melt onset over the marine cryosphere. Results indicate significant spatial and temporal variations in the melt signature over the Arctic from 1987 - 1996