Accuracy and reliability of the offered data have been tested against a number of independent data comprising ship-based observations, air-borne observations, and satellite observations; results of these activities are published as Roesel, A., L. Kaleschke, and G. Birnbaum, 2012. Melt ponds on Arctic sea ice determined from MODIS satellite data using an artifical neural network. The Cryosphere, 6, 431-446, doi: 10.5194/tc-6-431-2012.
It was found in the meantime, however, that a positive bias existed in the melt pond fraction as well as in the open water fraction. Information about this bias is given in Maekynen, M., S. Kern, A. Roesel, and L. T. Pedersen, 2014, On the Estimation of Melt Pond Fraction on the Arctic sea ice with Envisat WSM images. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 52, 11, 7366-7349, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2014.2311476 and in Kern, S., M. Zygmuntowska, K. Khvorostovsky, G. Spreen, N. Ivanova, and A. Beitsch, 2015, D4.1 Product Validation and Intercomparison Report (PVIR), ESA CCI sea ice ECV project report: SICCI-PVIR, v1.1, 25. Feb 2015: attached as Additional Information of superordinate experiment. Now the data set is in better agreement about published knowledge of snow melt and melt pond evolution onset.