Abstract
Remotely-sensed climate data records (CDRs) provide a basis for spatially distributed global climate model (GCM) inputs and validation methods. GCMs can take advantage of land surface models (LSMs), which aim to resolve surface energy, water and carbon budgets and hence these LSMs present important boundary conditions at the land-atmosphere interface. Pertinently, satellite data assimilation approaches are essential for improved land surface modelling for northern high latitudes ecosystems where permafrost degradation is reported to be ongoing. Permafrost, however, is an Essential Climate Variable (ECV) that cannot directly be monitored from space.Here, we advocate that CDRs, such as those compiled under the European Space Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) programme, may be used in combination with permafrost models to improve our understanding of permafrost extent and degradation in a changing climate system. We describe the current types of remotely-sensed surface feature products that are widely used as indicators for permafrost related features. Furthermore, we highlight issues of using these site-specific permafrost proxies related to spatial scale, as well as the uncertainties in establishing present-day permafrost extent itself.Our assessment of the key ECVs that impact on permafrost, demonstrates how models that incorporate EO CDRs have the potential to boost our knowledge of permafrost conditions through better parametrisation of the thermal regime of permafrost soils.
Highlights
The polar regions act as a gauge of climate change but these northern high latitude (NHL) ecosystems react rapidly to any changes in climate
We propose that combining in situ active layer thickness (ALT) and borehole temperature measurements with remote sensing products to integrate these into land surface models (LSM) is the approach that will take permafrost research forward into the future
Satellites have the potential to observe a number of Essential Climate Variables (ECVs)
Summary
The polar regions act as a gauge of climate change but these northern high latitude (NHL) ecosystems react rapidly to any changes in climate. Cryospheric ECVs that are currently being archived under the ESA CCI programme include: Glaciers, ice sheets and sea ice. at high latitudes we find other variables, such as permafrost, that are not yet being monitored and compiled into a climate data record (CDR). From the available data on borehole temperatures and active layer depth we do know that the permafrost has been warming, that this trend is more pronounced across the high Arctic and that since the year 2000 borehole temperature values at 20 m depth across the Arctic have increased within a range of 0.1◦C–0.7◦C per decade (Romanovsky et al, 2016) This permafrost warming comes with a growing concern related to the mobilisation of large amounts of soil organic carbon (SOC) presently stored within the NHL’s frozen ground It is necessary to take this interdependence of each variable, their interactions, into consideration
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