Remote study of thermokarst lakes in the arctic tundra of the taimyr

Abstract

The results of remote studies of thermokarst lakes in the Arctic zone of the Taimyr tundra are presented. The research was carried out on the territory of 725 thousand km2. Sentinel-2 satellite images were used in the studies, which made it possible to study the peculiarities of distribution of the number, total area of the lakes and tortuosity of their coastal borders. Histograms of the distribution of the number and total areas of the lakes in an extra wide range of their sizes from 0.2 to 5000 ha are presented. The histogram of lakes size-distribution demonstrates significant growth of their number with decrease in size. Histogram of the distribution of total areas of lakes by intervals of their sizes shows that more than 80 % of total area of lakes are dominated by lakes with sizes from 2 to 1000 ha. The analysis of the histogram of the degree of tortuosity of lakes borders distribution showed that the majority of lakes have the form of the coastal lines, which differs from a circle. The dependence of the degree of tortuosity of lakes borders on the size of lakes was studied and a positive linear trend of its change with the growth of the area of lakes was established.