Sea ice modulates the transfer of shortwave radiative energy fluxes within the Arctic atmosphere-sea-ice-ocean system. Understanding and predicting these fluxes comes with greatest uncertainties during the melt and freeze-up seasons, when the sea ice surface is strongly heterogeneous and changing rapidly. Then, the partitioning of solar radiative fluxes between atmosphere, ice, and ocean has greatest impacts on the surface energy budget, controlling sea ice melt and formation. Here, we investigated changes and impacts of sea ice surface variability by analyzing high-resolution red-green-blue aerial imagery obtained during the Multidisciplinary Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition in 2020. We used pixel brightness from processed aerial images as a proxy of surface albedo, because such data are frequently available and obtainable from commercial digital cameras. The results allowed quantification of fluxes on floe-scales and also revealed the seasonality of sea ice spatial heterogeneity, which was strongest in the middle of melt season driven by melt pond processes. On scales of 10 m × 10 m, a magnitude larger than the traditional single in-situ optical observations (although many are made over larger scales), distinct surface conditions, for example, individual melt ponds, resulted in differences of energy deposition into the ice by more than 600%. The effects of spatial variability were minimized by integrating over areas 200 m × 200 m and larger. We suggest considering these scales for future energy budget studies and airborne observations, because sufficient parts of different surface features are included. The concept of surface brightness and aerial photographs might help to bridge in-situ observations to even larger scales, including fractions of open water. It may also be used to upscale observations of under-ice light regimes by providing spatially continuous surface brightness that governs the light transmittance, thus to improve our understanding of the coupled system, including ecological functions.