1

Helmholtz Climate Initiative

Regional Climate Change

Evaluation of Permafrost Remote Sensing Products and Background Parameterization for Models

T3.2 Northern High Latitudes - Permafrost

www.reklim.de

Terrestrial PermafrostPermafrost (defined as ground below or at 0°C for at least 2 years)has been identified as one of six indicators of global climate change(World Meteorological Observation, WMO).

Permafrost is a key component of the cryosphere through itsinfluence on regional energy and water exchanges, greenhousegas fluxes and carbon budgets – and hence plays an important rolein the global climate system.

B. Heim1, K. Klehmet2, A. Bartsch3, K. Elger1, J. Boike1A, F. Günther1, H. Lantuit1, B. Rockel2, M. Langer1A, S. Muster1A, A. Morgenstern1, K. Piel1A, J. Sobiech1, U. Herzschuh1, H.-W. Hubberten1

The high-latitude ecosystems play a strong role in the climate system.

Operational Remote Sensing Observations

AWI / HGF-SPARC: Samoylov (RU), Svalbard (NO), Polar Bear Pass (CA)

Evaluation

Introduction

GTN-P Global terrestrial Network of Permafrostinitiated by the IPA, authorized under GCOS

Using Circum-Arctic Ground Observations

Regional-Scale Instruments

Regional Climate Modelling

Lena River catchment

COSMO-CLM (model of the Consortium for Small-scale Modelling in CLimate Mode)

global and regional input-datasets (land cover, soils) [outside model]

external background parameters (albedo, fraction vegetation, LAI, Z0, thermal emissivity)

[outside model/ modelled]

output parameters (soil moisture, frozen/ thawed state, temperature) [modelled]

Evaluation of

(Günther et al., 2011)

lake status (2001 & 2009)

1

(Morgenstern et al., 2011)lake status (2000/ 2001)

default: 10 m depth

rivers, 3 m depth

2

1

4

3

no inland water

referenced lake depth

LenaRiver Delta

Central YaktuianLake districts

to provide a consistentmeteorological data set athigh spatial- and temporalresolution

Orange = >10% rocklandRed = 80-90 % rocklandPink = 100 % rockland

Langer et al. (2010)Westermann et al. (2011)

In RSE

Evaluation of Background-Data for Modelling

Ongoing New regional to circum-arctic thematic background data: soils/rock, water bodies, wetlands, peatland

Adaptation of pre-processing for models for permafrost regions

Northern C

ircumpolar S

oils Map (Tarnocai et al. 2002)

Glo

bal L

ake

Dat

a S

et

(Kou

rzen

eva,

201

0)

First Results:

water

land cover

subground

German-Russian long-term measurement field Samoylov (RU). AWI / HGF-SPARC

Soil background-data from the FAO (1971-1981): contain no ‚rock‘ in mountain regions

futu

re ?

present

Global warming is most pronounced in high-latitudes.

Water (23 %) Wet (47 %)Dry (30 %)

AWI / HGF-SPARC: Samoylov (RU),VNIR aerial surface classification

tundra: 100% vegetation cover & wetlands & pondsbut: model LUT definition for tundra: sparce vegetation,

50% barren!

GTN-P site Yubileynoe (RU)

GTN-P site Nadym (RU)

Comparison Tair versus LST

R2 = 0,9686

‐60

‐50

‐40

‐30

‐20

‐10

0

10

20

30

‐60 ‐50 ‐40 ‐30 ‐20 ‐10 0 10 20 30 40

Monthly Bias (Tair ‐ LST)

0

50

100

150

200

250

2009‐2010 Au

gsep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar Ap

rMay Ju

n Jul

Number of Value

‐6,00

‐5,00

‐4,00

‐3,00

‐2,00

‐1,00

0,00

1,00

2,00

3,00

Temperature (°C)

Nb of Values Nb of Night Nb of Day Bias

1Ayoung

Investigator

2

3

Muster et al. (2010)

GLC

2000

, E

CO

CLI

MA

P

lake status (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)

after Romanovsky in Los Angeles Times