Permafrost, active layer and meteorological data (2010–2020) from a relict permafrost site at Mahan Mountain, Northeast of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Abstract. Relict permafrost presents an ideal opportunity to understand the impacts of climatic warming on the ground thermal regime since it is characterized by mean annual ground temperature close to 0 °C and relatively thin permafrost. The long-term and continuous observations of permafrost thermal state and climate background are of great importance to reveal the links between the energy balance on hourly to annual timescales, to evaluate the variations of permafrost thermal state over multi-annual periods and to validate the remote sensing dataset. Until now there are few data available in relict permafrost regions although those data are important to understand the impacts of climate changes on permafrost especially in the boundary regions between permafrost and seasonally frozen ground regions. In this study, we present 11 years of meteorological and soil data in a relict permafrost site of the Mahan Mountain on the northeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The meteorological data are comprised of air and ground surface temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, shortwave and longwave downward and upward radiation, water vapor pressure, and precipitation on half-an-hour timescale. The active layer data include daily soil temperature and soil moisture at five different depths. The permafrost data consist of ground temperature at twenty different depths up to 28.4 m. The high-quality and long-term datasets are expected to serve as accurate forcing data in land surface models and evaluate remote-sensing products for a broader geoscientific community. The datasets are available from the National Tibetan Plateau/Third Pole Environment Data Center (https://doi.org/10.11888/Cryos.tpdc.271838, Wu and Xie, 2021).

Download Full-text

Long-Term Variability in Ground Thermal State in Central Yakutia’s Tuymaada Valley

Land ◽

10.3390/land10111231 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (11) ◽

pp. 1231

Author(s):

Stepan Prokopievich Varlamov ◽

Yuri Borisovich Skachkov ◽

Pavel Nikolaevich Skryabin

Keyword(s):

Active Layer ◽

Climate Warming ◽

Thermal State ◽

Snow Accumulation ◽

Ground Temperature ◽

Active Layer Thickness ◽

Lena River ◽

The North ◽

Term Data

This paper presents the results of long-term temperature monitoring at the Yakutsk and Zeleny Lug stations, which are experimental sites, for the thermal state of valley permafrost landscapes under the conditions of modern climate warming. An analysis of the long-term data from meteorological stations in the region clearly showed one of the highest trends of increase in the mean annual air temperature in the north of Russia. Here, we established quantitative regularities in the long-term variability of the ground temperature at the bottom of the active layer and at zero amplitude. The dynamics of the ground temperature of the layer of zero amplitude during climate warming indicate the thermal stability of permafrost. The main regulating factor of the thermal state of grounds in permafrost landscapes is short-term fluctuations in the regime of snow accumulation. Active layer thickness is characterized by low interannual variability, weak climate warming responses, and insignificant trends. The results of studies of the thermal regime of soils can be extended to the same types of valley landscapes in the Lena River, and are a reliable basis for predicting heat transfer in natural and disturbed landscapes.

Download Full-text

Characteristics of vegetation response to drought in the CONUS based on long-term remote sensing and meteorological data

Ecological Indicators ◽

10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.107767 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 127 ◽

pp. 107767

Author(s):

Shaobo Zhong ◽

Ziheng Sun ◽

Liping Di

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Meteorological Data ◽

Vegetation Response

Download Full-text

Small-Baseline Approach for Monitoring the Freezing and Thawing Deformation of Permafrost on the Beiluhe Basin, Tibetan Plateau Using TerraSAR-X and Sentinel-1 Data

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s20164464 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 (16) ◽

pp. 4464

Author(s):

Jing Wang ◽

Chao Wang ◽

Hong Zhang ◽

Yixian Tang ◽

Xuefei Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Active Layer ◽

Surface Deformation ◽

Residual Deformation ◽

Dynamic Monitoring ◽

Tibet Plateau ◽

Time Lags ◽

Freezing And Thawing ◽

Linear Deformation ◽

Small Baseline ◽

Qinghai Tibet Plateau

The dynamic changes of the thawing and freezing processes of the active layer cause seasonal subsidence and uplift over a large area on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau due to ongoing climate warming. To analyze and investigate the seasonal freeze–thaw process of the active layer, we employ the new small baseline subset (NSBAS) technique based on a piecewise displacement model, including seasonal deformation, as well as linear and residual deformation trends, to retrieve the surface deformation of the Beiluhe basin. We collect 35 Sentinel-1 images with a 12 days revisit time and 9 TerraSAR-X images with less-than two month revisit time from 2018 to 2019 to analyze the type of the amplitude of seasonal oscillation of different ground targets on the Beiluhe basin in detail. The Sentinel-1 results show that the amplitude of seasonal deformation is between −62.50 mm and 11.50 mm, and the linear deformation rate ranges from −24.50 mm/yr to 5.00 mm/yr (2018–2019) in the study area. The deformation trends in the Qinghai–Tibet Railway (QTR) and Qinghai–Tibet Highway (QTH) regions are stable, ranging from −18.00 mm to 6 mm. The InSAR results of Sentinel-1 and TerraSAR-X data show that seasonal deformation trends are consistent, exhibiting good correlations 0.78 and 0.84, and the seasonal and linear deformation rates of different ground targets are clearly different on the Beiluhe basin. Additionally, there are different time lags between the maximum freezing uplift or thawing subsidence and the maximum or minimum temperature for the different ground target areas. The deformation values of the alpine meadow and floodplain areas are higher compared with the alpine desert and barren areas, and the time lags of the freezing and thawing periods based on the Sentinel-1 results are longest in the alpine desert area, that is, 86 days and 65 days, respectively. Our research has important reference significance for the seasonal dynamic monitoring of different types of seasonal deformation and the extensive investigations of permafrost in Qinghai Tibet Plateau.

Download Full-text