scholarly journals A 20-year record (1998–2017) of permafrost, active layer and meteorological conditions at a high Arctic permafrost research site (Bayelva, Spitsbergen)

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 355-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Boike ◽  
Inge Juszak ◽  
Stephan Lange ◽  
Sarah Chadburn ◽  
Eleanor Burke ◽  
...  

Abstract. Most permafrost is located in the Arctic, where frozen organic carbon makes it an important component of the global climate system. Despite the fact that the Arctic climate changes more rapidly than the rest of the globe, observational data density in the region is low. Permafrost thaw and carbon release to the atmosphere are a positive feedback mechanism that can exacerbate global warming. This positive feedback functions via changing land–atmosphere energy and mass exchanges. There is thus a great need to understand links between the energy balance, which can vary rapidly over hourly to annual timescales, and permafrost, which changes slowly over long time periods. This understanding thus mandates long-term observational data sets. Such a data set is available from the Bayelva site at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, where meteorology, energy balance components and subsurface observations have been made for the last 20 years. Additional data include a high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM) that can be used together with the snow physical information for snowpack modeling and a panchromatic image. This paper presents the data set produced so far, explains instrumentation, calibration, processing and data quality control, as well as the sources for various resulting data sets. The resulting data set is unique in the Arctic and serves as a baseline for future studies. The mean permafrost temperature is −2.8 °C, with a zero-amplitude depth at 5.5 m (2009–2017). Since the data provide observations of temporally variable parameters that mitigate energy fluxes between permafrost and atmosphere, such as snow depth and soil moisture content, they are suitable for use in integrating, calibrating and testing permafrost as a component in earth system models.The presented data are available in the Supplement for this paper (time series) and through the PANGAEA and Zenodo data portals: time series (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.880120, https://zenodo.org/record/1139714) and HRSC-AX data products (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.884730, https://zenodo.org/record/1145373).

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Boike ◽  
Inge Juszak ◽  
Stephan Lange ◽  
Sarah Chadburn ◽  
Eleanor Burke ◽  
...  

Abstract. Most permafrost is located in the Arctic, where frozen organic carbon makes it an important component of the global climate system. Despite the fact that the Arctic climate changes more rapidly than the rest of the globe, observational data density in the region is low. Permafrost thaw and carbon release to the atmosphere are a positive feedback mechanism that can exacerbate climate warming. This positive feedback functions via changing land-atmosphere energy and mass exchanges. There is thus a great need to understand links between the energy balance, which can vary rapidly over hourly to annual time scales, and permafrost, which changes slowly over long time periods. This understanding thus mandates long-term observational data sets. Such a data set is available from the Bayelva Site at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, where meteorology, energy balance components and subsurface observations have been made for the last 20 years. Additional data include a high resolution digital elevation model and a panchromatic image. This paper presents the data set produced so far, explains instrumentation, calibration, processing and data quality control, as well as the sources for various resulting data sets. The resulting data set is unique in the Arctic and serves a baseline for future studies. Since the data provide observations of temporally variable parameters that mitigate energy fluxes between permafrost and atmosphere, such as snow depth and soil moisture content, they are suitable for use in integrating, calibrating and testing permafrost as a component in Earth System Models. The data set also includes a high resolution digital elevation model that can be used together with the snow physical information for snow pack modeling. The presented data are available in the supplementary material for this paper and through the PANGAEA website ( https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.880120).


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 10917-11025
Author(s):  
M. Forkel ◽  
N. Carvalhais ◽  
S. Schaphoff ◽  
W. v. Bloh ◽  
M. Migliavacca ◽  
...  

Abstract. Existing dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) have a~limited ability in reproducing phenology and decadal dynamics of vegetation greenness as observed by satellites. These limitations in reproducing observations reflect a poor understanding and description of the environmental controls on phenology, which strongly influence the ability to simulate longer term vegetation dynamics, e.g. carbon allocation. Combining DGVMs with observational data sets can potentially help to revise current modelling approaches and thus to enhance the understanding of processes that control seasonal to long-term vegetation greenness dynamics. Here we implemented a~new phenology model within the LPJmL (Lund Potsdam Jena managed lands) DGVM and integrated several observational data sets to improve the ability of the model in reproducing satellite-derived time series of vegetation greenness. Specifically, we optimized LPJmL parameters against observational time series of the fraction of absorbed photosynthetic active radiation (FAPAR), albedo and gross primary production to identify the main environmental controls for seasonal vegetation greenness dynamics. We demonstrated that LPJmL with new phenology and optimized parameters better reproduces seasonality, inter-annual variability and trends of vegetation greenness. Our results indicate that soil water availability is an important control on vegetation phenology not only in water-limited biomes but also in boreal forests and the arctic tundra. Whereas water availability controls phenology in water-limited ecosystems during the entire growing season, water availability co-modulates jointly with temperature the beginning of the growing season in boreal and arctic regions. Additionally, water availability contributes to better explain decadal greening trends in the Sahel and browning trends in boreal forests. These results emphasize the importance of considering water availability in a new generation of phenology modules in DGVMs in order to correctly reproduce observed seasonal to decadal dynamics of vegetation greenness.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Boike ◽  
Jan Nitzbon ◽  
Katharina Anders ◽  
Mikhail Grigoriev ◽  
Dmitry Bolshiyanov ◽  
...  

Abstract. Most of the world's permafrost is located in the Arctic, where its frozen organic carbon con-tent makes it a potentially important influence on the global climate system. The Arctic climate appears to be changing more rapidly than the lower latitudes, but observational data density in the region is low. Permafrost thaw and carbon release into the atmosphere is a positive feed-back mechanism that has the potential for climate warming. It is therefore particularly im-portant to understand the links between the energy balance, which can vary rapidly over hour-ly to annual time scales, and permafrost condition, which changes slowly on decadal to cen-tennial timescales. This requires long-term observational data such as that available from the Samoylov research site in northern Siberia, where meteorological parameters, energy balance, and subsurface observations have been recorded since 1998. This paper presents the temporal data set produced between 2002 and 2017, explaining the instrumentation, calibration, pro-cessing and data quality control. Additional data include a high-resolution digital terrain mod-el (DTM) obtained from terrestrial LiDAR laser scanning. Since the data provide observations of temporally variable parameters that influence energy fluxes between permafrost, active lay-er soils, and the atmosphere (such as snow depth and soil moisture content), they are suitable for calibrating and quantifying the dynamics of permafrost as a component in earth system models. The data also include soil properties beneath different microtopographic features (a polygon center, a rim, a slope, and a trough), yielding much-needed information on landscape heterogeneity for use in land surface modeling. For the record from 1998 to 2017, the average mean annual air temperature was − 12.3 °C, with mean monthly temperature of the warmest month (July) recorded as 9.5 °C and for the coldest month (February) − 32.7 °C. The average annual rainfall was 169 mm. The depth of zero annual amplitude niveau is at 20.8 m, and has warmed from − 9.1 °C in 2006 to − 7.7 °C in 2017. The presented data are available in the supplementary material of this paper and through the PANGAEA website (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.891142).


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 261-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Boike ◽  
Jan Nitzbon ◽  
Katharina Anders ◽  
Mikhail Grigoriev ◽  
Dmitry Bolshiyanov ◽  
...  

Abstract. Most of the world's permafrost is located in the Arctic, where its frozen organic carbon content makes it a potentially important influence on the global climate system. The Arctic climate appears to be changing more rapidly than the lower latitudes, but observational data density in the region is low. Permafrost thaw and carbon release into the atmosphere, as well as snow cover changes, are positive feedback mechanisms that have the potential for climate warming. It is therefore particularly important to understand the links between the energy balance, which can vary rapidly over hourly to annual timescales, and permafrost conditions, which changes slowly on decadal to centennial timescales. This requires long-term observational data such as that available from the Samoylov research site in northern Siberia, where meteorological parameters, energy balance, and subsurface observations have been recorded since 1998. This paper presents the temporal data set produced between 2002 and 2017, explaining the instrumentation, calibration, processing, and data quality control. Furthermore, we present a merged data set of the parameters, which were measured from 1998 onwards. Additional data include a high-resolution digital terrain model (DTM) obtained from terrestrial lidar laser scanning. Since the data provide observations of temporally variable parameters that influence energy fluxes between permafrost, active-layer soils, and the atmosphere (such as snow depth and soil moisture content), they are suitable for calibrating and quantifying the dynamics of permafrost as a component in earth system models. The data also include soil properties beneath different microtopographic features (a polygon centre, a rim, a slope, and a trough), yielding much-needed information on landscape heterogeneity for use in land surface modelling. For the record from 1998 to 2017, the average mean annual air temperature was −12.3 ∘C, with mean monthly temperature of the warmest month (July) recorded as 9.5 ∘C and for the coldest month (February) −32.7 ∘C. The average annual rainfall was 169 mm. The depth of zero annual amplitude is at 20.75 m. At this depth, the temperature has increased from −9.1 ∘C in 2006 to −7.7 ∘C in 2017. The presented data are freely available through the PANGAEA (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.891142) and Zenodo (https://zenodo.org/record/2223709, last access: 6 February 2019) websites.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Morice ◽  
John Kennedy ◽  
Nick Rayner ◽  
Jonathan Winn ◽  
Emma Hogan ◽  
...  

<p>The new HadCRUT5 data set combines meteorological station air temperature records with sea-surface temperature measurements in a data set of near-surface temperature anomalies from the year 1850 to present. Major developments in HadCRUT5 include: updates to underpinning observation data holdings; use of an updated assessment of the impacts of changing marine measurement methods; and adoption of a statistical gridding method to extend estimates into sparsely observed regions of the globe, such as the Arctic. The data are presented as a 200-member ensemble that spans the assessed uncertainty associated with adjustments for long-term observational biases, observing platform measurement errors and the interaction of observational sampling with gridding methods. The impacts of methodological changes in HadCRUT5 on diagnostics of the global climate will be discussed and compared to results derived from other state-of-the-art global data sets.</p>


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 7025-7050 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Forkel ◽  
N. Carvalhais ◽  
S. Schaphoff ◽  
W. v. Bloh ◽  
M. Migliavacca ◽  
...  

Abstract. Existing dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) have a limited ability in reproducing phenology and decadal dynamics of vegetation greenness as observed by satellites. These limitations in reproducing observations reflect a poor understanding and description of the environmental controls on phenology, which strongly influence the ability to simulate longer-term vegetation dynamics, e.g. carbon allocation. Combining DGVMs with observational data sets can potentially help to revise current modelling approaches and thus enhance the understanding of processes that control seasonal to long-term vegetation greenness dynamics. Here we implemented a new phenology model within the LPJmL (Lund Potsdam Jena managed lands) DGVM and integrated several observational data sets to improve the ability of the model in reproducing satellite-derived time series of vegetation greenness. Specifically, we optimized LPJmL parameters against observational time series of the fraction of absorbed photosynthetic active radiation (FAPAR), albedo and gross primary production to identify the main environmental controls for seasonal vegetation greenness dynamics. We demonstrated that LPJmL with new phenology and optimized parameters better reproduces seasonality, inter-annual variability and trends of vegetation greenness. Our results indicate that soil water availability is an important control on vegetation phenology not only in water-limited biomes but also in boreal forests and the Arctic tundra. Whereas water availability controls phenology in water-limited ecosystems during the entire growing season, water availability co-modulates jointly with temperature the beginning of the growing season in boreal and Arctic regions. Additionally, water availability contributes to better explain decadal greening trends in the Sahel and browning trends in boreal forests. These results emphasize the importance of considering water availability in a new generation of phenology modules in DGVMs in order to correctly reproduce observed seasonal-to-decadal dynamics of vegetation greenness.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 439-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Lindborg ◽  
Johan Rydberg ◽  
Mats Tröjbom ◽  
Sten Berglund ◽  
Emma Johansson ◽  
...  

Abstract. Global warming is expected to be most pronounced in the Arctic where permafrost thaw and release of old carbon may provide an important feedback mechanism to the climate system. To better understand and predict climate effects and feedbacks on the cycling of elements within and between ecosystems in northern latitude landscapes, a thorough understanding of the processes related to transport and cycling of elements is required. A fundamental requirement to reach a better process understanding is to have access to high-quality empirical data on chemical concentrations and biotic properties for a wide range of ecosystem domains and functional units (abiotic and biotic pools). The aim of this study is therefore to make one of the most extensive field data sets from a periglacial catchment readily available that can be used both to describe present-day periglacial processes and to improve predictions of the future. Here we present the sampling and analytical methods, field and laboratory equipment and the resulting biogeochemical data from a state-of-the-art whole-ecosystem investigation of the terrestrial and aquatic parts of a lake catchment in the Kangerlussuaq region, West Greenland. This data set allows for the calculation of whole-ecosystem mass balance budgets for a long list of elements, including carbon, nutrients and major and trace metals. The data set is freely available and can be downloaded from PANGAEA: doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.860961.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 211-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amelie Driemel ◽  
Eberhard Fahrbach ◽  
Gerd Rohardt ◽  
Agnieszka Beszczynska-Möller ◽  
Antje Boetius ◽  
...  

Abstract. Measuring temperature and salinity profiles in the world's oceans is crucial to understanding ocean dynamics and its influence on the heat budget, the water cycle, the marine environment and on our climate. Since 1983 the German research vessel and icebreaker Polarstern has been the platform of numerous CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth instrument) deployments in the Arctic and the Antarctic. We report on a unique data collection spanning 33 years of polar CTD data. In total 131 data sets (1 data set per cruise leg) containing data from 10 063 CTD casts are now freely available at doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.860066. During this long period five CTD types with different characteristics and accuracies have been used. Therefore the instruments and processing procedures (sensor calibration, data validation, etc.) are described in detail. This compilation is special not only with regard to the quantity but also the quality of the data – the latter indicated for each data set using defined quality codes. The complete data collection includes a number of repeated sections for which the quality code can be used to investigate and evaluate long-term changes. Beginning with 2010, the salinity measurements presented here are of the highest quality possible in this field owing to the introduction of the OPTIMARE Precision Salinometer.


2020 ◽  
pp. 56-80
Author(s):  
Jonathan N. Markowitz

Chapter 4 employs data from three new data sets, the Arctic Military Activity Events Data Set, the Arctic Bases Data Set, and the Icebreaker and Ice-Hardened Warships Data Set. These new data enable a systematic comparison of each state’s Arctic military forces and deployments before and after the 2007 climate shock. The data offer a corrective to both sensationalist media accounts that suggest that all states are scrambling to fight over Arctic resources and those who downplay real changes in states’ Arctic military capabilities and presence. Confirming Rent-Addition’s Theory’s predictions, the descriptive statistical comparisons reveal that the states that were most economically dependent on resource rents, Norway and Russia, were the most willing to back their claims by projecting military force to disputed areas and investing in Arctic bases, ice-hardened warships, and icebreakers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 2971
Author(s):  
Jingzhao Ding ◽  
Qing Zhao ◽  
Maochuan Tang ◽  
Fabiana Calò ◽  
Virginia Zamparelli ◽  
...  

In this work, we study ground deformation of ocean-reclaimed platforms as retrieved from interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) analyses. We investigate, in particular, the suitability and accuracy of some time-dependent models used to characterize and foresee the present and future evolution of ground deformation of the coastal lands. Previous investigations, carried out by the authors of this paper and other scholars, related to the zone of the ocean-reclaimed lands of Shanghai, have already shown that ocean-reclaimed lands are subject to subside (i.e., the ground is subject to settling down due to soil consolidation and compression), and the temporal evolution of that deformation follows a certain predictable model. Specifically, two time-gapped SAR datasets composed of the images collected by the ENVISAT ASAR (ENV) from 2007 to 2010 and the COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) sensors, available from 2013 to 2016, were used to generate long-term ground displacement time-series using a proper time-dependent geotechnical model. In this work, we use a third SAR data set consisting of Radarsat-2 (RST-2) acquisitions collected from 2012 to 2016 to further corroborate the validity of that model. As a result, we verified with the new RST-2 data, partially covering the gap between the ENV and CSK acquisitions, that the adopted model fits the data and that the model is suitable to perform future projections. Furthermore, we extended these analyses to the area of Pearl River Delta (PRD) and the city of Shenzhen, China. Our study aims to investigate the suitability of different time-dependent ground deformation models relying on the different geophysical conditions in the two areas of Shanghai and Shenzhen, China. To this aim, three sets of SAR data, collected by the ENV platform (from both ascending and descending orbits) and the Sentinel-1A (S1A) sensor (on ascending orbits), were used to obtain the ground displacement time-series of the Shenzhen city and its surrounding region. Multi-orbit InSAR data products were also combined to discriminate the up–down (subsidence) ground deformation time-series of the coherent points, which are then used to estimate the parameters of the models adopted to foresee the future evolution of the land-reclaimed ground consolidation procedure. The exploitation of the obtained geospatial data and products are helpful for the continuous monitoring of coastal environments and the evaluation of the socio-economical impacts of human activities and global climate change.


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