Permafrost and the International Polar Year
Abstract
Three permafrost projects are in the planning stages for 2007-2008 IPY. (1) The Permafrost Observatory Project: A Contribution to the Thermal State of Permafrost (TSP) will obtain a "snapshot" of permafrost temperatures in existing and new boreholes throughout both hemispheres. The project is a field campaign of the existing Global Terrestrial Network on Permafrost (GTN-P) that also includes the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) project. (2) The Antarctic and sub-Antarctic Permafrost, Periglacial and Soil Environments project (ANTPAS) is aimed at integrating existing and new data on the distribution, thickness, age, history and physical and geochemical properties of permafrost, soils and the active-layer on the Antarctic continent and sub-Antarctic islands. A monitoring network, a regional subset of GTN-P and consisting of borehole temperatures, active-layer thickness, and periglacial and soil observations, will be established along selected environmental gradients. (3) The Arctic Circum-Polar Coastal Observatory Network (ACCO-Net) proposes to investigate approximately 20 key coastal sites including deltas and estuaries of major Siberian and North American rivers at which physical, ecological, biochemical and socio-economic changes will be observed. Both educational outreach and data management activities are key elements in the three projects and will contribute to the overall IPY goals and its legacy. Our Permafrost Legacy is to create the basis for a new generation of researcher and the "snapshot" of existing conditions as a baseline for future change assessment. The Joint Committee of the IPY has approved the three projects that include approximately 150 individuals from the 25- member International Permafrost Association (IPA). The IPA is coordinating these projects in cooperation with the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR), the Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) and the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC). Initial results will be presented at the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost (NICOP) in Fairbanks, Alaska, and the 33rd International Geological Congress in Oslo, Norway, during summer 2008.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2005
- Bibcode:
- 2005AGUFM.C22A..01B
- Keywords:
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- 0704 Seasonally frozen ground;
- 0706 Active layer;
- 0716 Cryobiology (0475);
- 1621 Cryospheric change (0776);
- 1823 Frozen ground