Meteorological satellite imagery has been used to map the changes of surface brightness and texture associated with the seasonal progression of snow melt on the arctic pack ice in 1977 and 1979, and, using an image processor, surface albedo has been estimated. This is the first basin‐wide information on the temporal and spatial change of the ice surface and its albedo. In both years studied, melt progressed poleward from the Barents and Kara Seas and from the southern Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. Average surface albedo of the Arctic Basin fell to 0.40, and in the central Arctic to about 0.50, in late July of each year, but the melt occurred approximately 3 weeks later in 1979 than in 1977. Results suggest a significant year‐to‐year variability in the arctic energy and mass bal