DUE PERMAFROST: A Circumpolar Remote Sensing Service for Permafrost - Evaluation Case Studies and Intercomparison with Regional Climate Model Simulations
Abstract
The objective of the ESA Data User Element DUE Permafrost project (https://www.ipf.tuwien.ac.at/permafrost/) was to establish a Remote Sensing Service for permafrost applications. Permafrost has been addressed as one of the Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) in the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). Permafrost is a subground phenomenon but Earth Observation can provide permafrost-related indicators and geophysical parameters used in modelling and monitoring. Climate and permafrost modelers as well as field investigators are associated users including the International Permafrost Association (IPA). http://www.page21.eu/ The ESA DUE Permafrost project (2009-2012) developed a suite of remote sensing products indicative for the subsurface phenomenon permafrost: Land Surface Temperature (LST), Surface Soil Moisture (SSM), Surface Frozen and Thawed State (Freeze/Thaw), Terrain, Land Cover, and Surface Water. Snow parameters (Snow Extent and Snow Water Equivalent) are being developed through the DUE GlobSnow project (Global Snow Monitoring for Climate Research, 2008-2011). The final DUE Permafrost remote sensing products cover the years 2007 to 2011 with a circumpolar coverage (north of 50°N). The products were released in 2012, to be used to analyze the temporal dynamics and map the spatial patterns of permafrost indicators. Further information is available at www.ipf.tuwien.ac.at/ permafrost. The remote sensing service also supports the FP7 funded project PAGE21 - Changing Permafrost in the Arctic and its Global Effects in the 21st Century, http://www.page21.eu/. The primary programme providing various ground data for the evaluation is the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTN-P) initiated by the International Permafrost Association (IPA). Ground data ranges from active layer- and snow depths, to air-, ground-, and borehole temperature data as well as soil moisture measurements and the description of landform and vegetation. The involvement of scientific stakeholders and the IPA, and the ongoing evaluation of the remote sensing derived products make the DUE Permafrost products accepted by the scientific community. The Helmholtz Climate Initiative REKLIM (Regionale KlimaAnderungen/Regional climate change) is a climate research program where regional observations and process studies are coupled with model simulations (http://www.reklim.de/en/home/). The ESA DUE Permafrost User workshops initiated the use of the DUE time series within the REKLIM framework for inter-comparison experiments in order to assist the evaluation of calculated parameter fields of models. Within the REKLIM framework we spatio-temporally compare the geophysical surface parameters simulated by regional climate models with the spatio-temporal variability of Earth Observational remote sensing products. Earth Observational remote sensing products are: DUE Permafrost, DUE GlobSnow (http://www.globsnow.info) and the MODIS albedo product (MOD 43). We show intercomparison substudies on simulated fields of surface temperature and ground frozen, non-frozen state simulated by the regional climate models HIRHAM for the circumpolar domain and COSMO-CLM for Central Siberia.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUFM.B51H0393H
- Keywords:
-
- 0702 CRYOSPHERE Permafrost;
- 0429 BIOGEOSCIENCES Climate dynamics;
- 0480 BIOGEOSCIENCES Remote sensing