Vegetation, snow cover, and air and near-surface ground temperature across treeline in the uplands east of the Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories

Abstract. The strong winds prevalent in high altitude and arctic environments heavily redistribute the snow cover, causing a small-scale pattern of highly variable snow depths. This has profound implications for the ground thermal regime, resulting in highly variable near-surface ground temperatures on the metre scale. Due to asymmetric snow distributions combined with the nonlinear insulating effect of snow, the spatial average ground temperature in a 1 km2 area cannot be determined based on the average snow cover for that area. Land surface or permafrost models employing a coarsely classified average snow depth will therefore not yield a realistic representation of ground temperatures. In this study we employ statistically derived snow distributions within 1 km2 grid cells as input to a regional permafrost model in order to represent sub-grid variability of ground temperatures. This improves the representation of both the average and the total range of ground temperatures. The model reproduces observed sub-grid ground temperature variations of up to 6 °C, and 98 % of borehole observations match the modelled temperature range. The mean modelled temperature of the grid cell reproduces the observations with an accuracy of 1.5 °C or better. The observed sub-grid variations in ground surface temperatures from two field sites are very well reproduced, with estimated fractions of sub-zero mean annual ground surface temperatures within &pm;10 %. We also find that snow distributions within areas of 1 km2 in Norwegian mountain environments are closer to a gamma than to a lognormal theoretical distribution. The modelled permafrost distribution seems to be more sensitive to the choice of distribution function than to the fine-tuning of the coefficient of variation. When incorporating the small-scale variation of snow, the modelled total permafrost area of mainland Norway is nearly twice as large compared to the area obtained with grid-cell average snow depths without a sub-grid approach.

Download Full-text

Influence of snow on near-surface ground temperatures in upland and alluvial environments of the outer Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories1This article is one of a series of papers published in this CJES Special Issue on the theme of Fundamental and applied research on permafrost in Canada.

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences ◽

10.1139/e2012-012 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 49 (8) ◽

pp. 895-913 ◽

Cited By ~ 35

Author(s):

P.D. Morse ◽

C.R. Burn ◽

S.V. Kokelj

Keyword(s):

Snow Cover ◽

Active Layer ◽

Snow Depth ◽

Active Layer Thickness ◽

Mackenzie Delta ◽

Diverse Range ◽

Near Surface ◽

Ground Temperatures ◽

Vegetation Height ◽

The Difference

Relations between snow cover, active-layer thickness, and near-surface ground temperatures were determined in 2005–2009 for a diverse range of alluvial and upland settings in the outer Mackenzie Delta. Here, the snow cover developed primarily by wind redistribution, with its spatial variation controlled by topography in uplands and vegetation height in alluvial lowlands. Snow cover was the primary influence on freeze-back duration and the mean annual temperature at the top of permafrost (TTOP), with the difference in median TTOP between alluvial (–3.7 °C) and upland (–6.1 °C) settings related to the greater snow depth and soil moisture in the alluvial plain. The active layer was generally deeper in the wet alluvial lowlands, where the average duration of active-layer freeze back (101 days) was nearly double the time taken in the well-drained uplands (55 days). The surface offset (ΔTS; up to 11 °C) dominated the difference between annual mean air temperature (AMAT) and TTOP (ΔT). In alluvial terrain, ΔTS varied with snow depth, but in the uplands, ΔTS was more consistent from site to site. The small thermal offset (<2 °C) was slightly greater in alluvial terrain than in the uplands. The overall range in ΔT (2–10 °C) led to a range during the study of 7.2 °C in TTOP at the sites. The range in AMAT was 1.3 °C but up to 1.7 °C in TTOP at any one site. Permafrost was well established throughout the area except adjacent to channels where TTOP was close to 0 °C.

Download Full-text

Geochemistry of the active layer and near-surface permafrost, Mackenzie delta region, Northwest Territories, Canada

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences ◽

10.1139/e04-089 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 42 (1) ◽

pp. 37-48 ◽

Cited By ~ 75

Author(s):

S V Kokelj ◽

C R Burn

Keyword(s):

Northwest Territories ◽

Active Layer ◽

Permafrost Soil ◽

Mackenzie Delta ◽

Delta Region ◽

Ion Content ◽

Near Surface ◽

Fine Grained ◽

Permafrost Table ◽

Soluble Ion

The soluble ion content of the active layer and near-surface permafrost was determined at 41 sites in the Mackenzie delta region, Northwest Territories, Canada. In delta soils, Ca2+ and Mg2+ are the dominant soluble cations, but the quantity and relative abundance of Na+ increase with proximity to the Beaufort Sea coast. Soils beneath frequently flooded surfaces are ion rich in comparison with ground above the level of decadal flooding. Within a terrain type, near-surface permafrost soil solute concentrations are similar between paired cores spaced <1 m apart, but at greater distances (cores spaced 313 m apart), solute concentrations are significantly different. Comparatively low soil solute concentrations in old upland surfaces near Inuvik may be a result of progressive removal of soluble materials from the active layer and permafrost during periods of deeper thaw. In sandy silt alluvium, solutes excluded during downward freezing may accumulate at the base of the active layer and be sequestered by a rising permafrost table. At sites with finer grained clayey silts, the correspondence between zones of ice and cation enrichment indicates coupled movement of water and solutes during freeze-back of the active layer and development of aggradational ice. Solute enrichment of near-surface permafrost is greatest at fine-grained ice-rich alluvial sites, where mean concentrations in permafrost are up to 7.5 times greater than those in the active layer.

Download Full-text

Small-scale variation of snow in a regional permafrost model

The Cryosphere Discussions ◽

10.5194/tcd-9-6661-2015 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 9 (6) ◽

pp. 6661-6696

Author(s):

K. Gisnås ◽

S. Westermann ◽

T. V. Schuler ◽

K. Melvold ◽

B. Etzelmüller

Keyword(s):

Snow Cover ◽

Land Surface ◽

Ground Temperature ◽

Small Scale ◽

Spatial Average ◽

Near Surface ◽

Ground Temperatures ◽

Grid Approach ◽

Realistic Representation ◽

Strong Winds

Abstract. The strong winds prevalent in high altitude and arctic environments heavily redistribute the snow cover, causing a small-scale pattern of highly variable snow depths. This has profound implications for the ground thermal regime, resulting in highly variable near-surface ground temperatures on the meter scale. Asymmetric snow distributions combined with the non-linear insulating effect of snow also mean that the spatial average ground temperature in a 1 km2 area can not necessarily be determined based on the average snow cover for that area. Land surface or permafrost models employing a coarsely classified average snow depth will therefore not yield a realistic representation of ground temperatures. In this study we employ statistically derived snow distributions within 1 km2 grid cells as input to a regional permafrost model in order to represent sub-grid variability of ground temperatures. This is shown to improve the representation of both the average and the total range of ground temperatures: the model results show that we reproduce observed sub-grid ground temperature variations of up to 6 °C, with 98 % of borehole observations within the modelled temperature range. Based on this more faithful representation of ground temperatures, we find the total permafrost area of mainland Norway to be nearly twice as large as what is modelled without a sub-grid approach.

Download Full-text

Near-surface ground ice in sediments of the Mackenzie Delta Region, Northwest Territories

10.22215/etd/2003-05373 ◽

2003 ◽

Author(s):

Steven Kokelj

Keyword(s):

Northwest Territories ◽

Mackenzie Delta ◽

Delta Region ◽

Ground Ice ◽

Near Surface

Download Full-text

Semi-Automatic Fractional Snow Cover Monitoring from Near-Surface Remote Sensing in Grassland

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13112045 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (11) ◽

pp. 2045

Author(s):

Anaí Caparó Bellido ◽

Bradley C. Rundquist

Keyword(s):

Snow Cover ◽

Near Infrared ◽

Accuracy Assessment ◽

Important Variable ◽

Field Station ◽

Near Surface ◽

Fractional Snow Cover ◽

Rgb Images ◽

Phenological Metrics

Snow cover is an important variable in both climatological and hydrological studies because of its relationship to environmental energy and mass flux. However, variability in snow cover can confound satellite-based efforts to monitor vegetation phenology. This research explores the utility of the PhenoCam Network cameras to estimate Fractional Snow Cover (FSC) in grassland. The goal is to operationalize FSC estimates from PhenoCams to inform and improve the satellite-based determination of phenological metrics. The study site is the Oakville Prairie Biological Field Station, located near Grand Forks, North Dakota. We developed a semi-automated process to estimate FSC from PhenoCam images through Python coding. Compared with previous research employing RGB images only, our use of the monochrome RGB + NIR (near-infrared) reduced pixel misclassification and increased accuracy. The results had an average RMSE of less than 8% FSC compared to visual estimates. Our pixel-based accuracy assessment showed that the overall accuracy of the images selected for validation was 92%. This is a promising outcome, although not every PhenoCam Network system has NIR capability.

Download Full-text