This dataset contains a timelapse video of a tracer percolation experiment in the seasonal snowpack near Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, on 31st March 2023. The tracer percolation experiment was carried out by applying a coloured water tracer over a defined area and filmed using a camera and tripod. The video was recorded as part of an experimental field study ("Wet Finderprints") by Dorothea Moser to visualise the progression and retardation of meltwater liquid in near-surface snow. The project was supported by an Arctic Field Grant through the Norwegian Research Council - Project No. 342165, RiS ID 12132. Dorothea Elisabeth Moser was supported by BAS Cambridge and the NERC C-CLEAR Doctoral Training Programme (grant no. NE/S007164/1).

This dataset contains gridded daily surface melt data for Antarctica estimated from passive microwave observations from the Scanning Microwave Multichannel Radiometer (SMMR), the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I), and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS) spaceborne sensors and covering the 1978-2017 period. Also provided are the latitudes and longitudes of the grid and computed melt days for each austral summer (Dec-Jan-Feb) during the period. Funding was provided by NSF grants PLR 1341695 and PLR 1443443.