Airborne electromagnetic imaging of discontinuous permafrost

Minsley, Burke J.; Abraham, Jared D.; Smith, Bruce D.; Cannia, James C.; Voss, Clifford I.; Jorgenson, M. Torre; Walvoord, M. A.; Wylie, Bruce K.; Anderson, Lesleigh; Ball, Lyndsay B.; Deszcz-Pan, Maria; Wellman, Tristan P.; Ager, Thomas A.

doi:10.1029/2011gl050079

Cited by 144 publications

(177 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Features consistent with all five scenarios are widespread in permafrost regions but are difficult to measure and characterize in the field [e.g., Yoshikawa and Hinzman, 2003;Minsley et al, 2012]. Using these scenarios, we show the synthetic sounding curves that would be obtained when using a 100 m loop under conditions of low EM noise (Figure 3b).…”

Section: Modeling Of Surface Nmr Response To Different Types Of Thawementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Past attempts at geophysical investigation of sublacustrine sediments using groundpenetrating radar have been successful; however, this method is limited by investigation depth to the top several meters of sublake sediment [e.g., Schwamborn et al 2002, Arcone et al, 2006. Airborne frequency-domain electromagnetic investigations have proven to be reliable at imaging the electrical resistivity up to depths of approximately 100 m over terrestrial permafrost and thermokarst lakes [Minsley et al, 2012]. However, the limitation of any electrical resistivity measurement is that they may be prone to ambiguous interpretation: resistivity is linked to the parameter of interest (i.e., liquid water content), but it is also sensitive to pore water chemistry, temperature, and lithology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Detecting unfrozen sediments below thermokarst lakes with surface nuclear magnetic resonance

Parsekian

Grosse

Walbrecker

et al. 2013

Geophysical Research Letters

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[1] A talik is a layer or body of unfrozen ground that occurs in permafrost due to an anomaly in thermal, hydrological, or hydrochemical conditions. Information about talik geometry is important for understanding regional surface water and groundwater interactions as well as sublacustrine methane production in thermokarst lakes. Due to the direct measurement of unfrozen water content, surface nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a promising geophysical method for noninvasively estimating talik dimensions. We made surface NMR measurements on thermokarst lakes and terrestrial permafrost near Fairbanks, Alaska, and confirmed our results using limited direct measurements. At an 8 m deep lake, we observed thaw bulb at least 22 m below the surface; at a 1.4 m deep lake, we detected a talik extending between 5 and 6 m below the surface. Our study demonstrates the value that surface NMR may have in the cryosphere for studies of thermokarst lake hydrology and their related role in the carbon cycle. Citation: Parsekian, A.

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Section: Modeling Of Surface Nmr Response To Different Types Of Thawementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting unfrozen sediments below thermokarst lakes with surface nuclear magnetic resonance

Parsekian

Grosse

Walbrecker

et al. 2013

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…As a subsurface thermal condition of soil, however, permafrost is a challenge to detect remotely. Diverse approaches to indirectly map permafrost have been developed, including geophysical techniques using airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data [22], thermal modeling of ground temperatures using climate data and/or land surface temperatures [2,[23][24][25], and statistical-empirical methods relating land cover, topography, and spectral indices to permafrost characteristics [26][27][28]. This study applies the latter approach of establishing empirical relationships of remote sensing data with permafrost conditions, specifically within a wildfire burn.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape Effects of Wildfire on Permafrost Distribution in Interior Alaska Derived from Remote Sensing

Brown

Jorgenson²,

Kielland

et al. 2016

Remote Sensing

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Climate change coupled with an intensifying wildfire regime is becoming an important driver of permafrost loss and ecosystem change in the northern boreal forest. There is a growing need to understand the effects of fire on the spatial distribution of permafrost and its associated ecological consequences. We focus on the effects of fire a decade after disturbance in a rocky upland landscape in the interior Alaskan boreal forest. Our main objectives were to (1) map near-surface permafrost distribution and drainage classes and (2) analyze the controls over landscape-scale patterns of post-fire permafrost degradation. Relationships among remote sensing variables and field-based data on soil properties (temperature, moisture, organic layer thickness) and vegetation (plant community composition) were analyzed using correlation, regression, and ordination analyses. The remote sensing data we considered included spectral indices from optical datasets (Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI)), the principal components of a time series of radar backscatter (Advanced Land Observing Satellite-Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (ALOS-PALSAR)), and topographic variables from a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)-derived digital elevation model (DEM). We found strong empirical relationships between the normalized difference infrared index (NDII) and post-fire vegetation, soil moisture, and soil temperature, enabling us to indirectly map permafrost status and drainage class using regression-based models. The thickness of the insulating surface organic layer after fire, a measure of burn severity, was an important control over the extent of permafrost degradation. According to our classifications, 90% of the area considered to have experienced high severity burn (using the difference normalized burn ratio (dNBR)) lacked permafrost after fire. Permafrost thaw, in turn, likely increased drainage and resulted in drier surface soils. Burn severity also influenced plant community composition, which was tightly linked to soil temperature and moisture. Overall, interactions between burn severity, topography, and vegetation appear to control the distribution of near-surface permafrost and associated drainage conditions after disturbance.

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“…The Yukon Flats are characterized by extremely cold winters (mean January air temperature of −23 °C) and warm, dry summers (mean July air temperature of 17 °C) with low annual precipitation (26.7 cm water equivalent on average) [23]. The study area is primarily covered by spruce and birch forest and marshland and is underlain by discontinuous permafrost [23,[30][31][32]. Lakes in the Yukon Flats typically depend on recharge from spring river ice breakup flooding events [23].…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking Dynamic Northern Surface Water Changes with High-Frequency Planet CubeSat Imagery

et al. 2017

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Recent deployments of CubeSat imagers by companies such as Planet may advance hydrological remote sensing by providing an unprecedented combination of high temporal and high spatial resolution imagery at the global scale. With approximately 170 CubeSats orbiting at full operational capacity, the Planet CubeSat constellation currently offers an average revisit time of <1 day for the Arctic and near-daily revisit time globally at 3 m spatial resolution. Such data have numerous potential applications for water resource monitoring, hydrologic modeling and hydrologic research. Here we evaluate Planet CubeSat imaging capabilities and potential scientific utility for surface water studies in the Yukon Flats, a large sub-Arctic wetland in north central Alaska. We find that surface water areas delineated from Planet imagery have a normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) of <11% and geolocation accuracy of <10 m as compared with manual delineations from high resolution (0.3-0.5 m) WorldView-2/3 panchromatic satellite imagery. For a 625 km 2 subarea of the Yukon Flats, our time series analysis reveals that roughly one quarter of 268 lakes analyzed responded to changes in Yukon River discharge over the period 23 June-1 October 2016, one half steadily contracted, and one quarter remained unchanged. The spatial pattern of observed lake changes is heterogeneous. While connections to Yukon River control the hydrologically connected lakes, the behavior of other lakes is complex, likely driven by a combination of intricate flow paths, underlying geology and permafrost. Limitations of Planet CubeSat imagery include a lack of an automated cloud mask, geolocation inaccuracies, and inconsistent radiometric calibration across multiple platforms. Although these challenges must be addressed before Planet CubeSat imagery can achieve its full potential for large-scale hydrologic research, we conclude that CubeSat imagery offers a powerful new tool for the study and monitoring of dynamic surface water bodies.

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Airborne electromagnetic imaging of discontinuous permafrost

Cited by 144 publications

References 41 publications

Detecting unfrozen sediments below thermokarst lakes with surface nuclear magnetic resonance

Detecting unfrozen sediments below thermokarst lakes with surface nuclear magnetic resonance

Landscape Effects of Wildfire on Permafrost Distribution in Interior Alaska Derived from Remote Sensing

Tracking Dynamic Northern Surface Water Changes with High-Frequency Planet CubeSat Imagery

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