Influence of Meteorological Elements on Changes in Active‐Layer Thickness in the Bellsund region, Svalbard

Abstract

Measurements of active‐layer thickness (ALT) at seven locations on Calypsostranda, Svalbard (CALM Site P1), over 1986–2009, are used to estimate the influence of cloudiness, precipitation, air temperature, the Arctic Oscillation (AO) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Between 1986 and 2002, ALT amounted to 118 ± 14 cm and did not show any significant trend. During 2002–06, ALT increased rapidly (12.6 cm yr‐1) to a maximum of ~ 174 cm in 2006 and 2007. In 2008 and 2009, ALT decreased. No statistically significant correlations were determined between ALT and monthly precipitation and cloudiness at Barentsburg, Hornsund and Svalbard Airport stations. There were, however, very strong and highly significant (p < 0.001) relationships with air temperatures in May and June (the strongest association being with Svalbard Airport). The influence of air temperature in May and June on ALT is indirect; it regulates the time of the melt of snow cover, which determines the duration of the ground‐warming period. Using statistical relationships between ALT and air temperature at Svalbard Airport, the time series of ALT at Calypsostranda is reconstructed from 1911 to 2010. It was also found that the AO and the NAO did not significantly affect ALT and air temperature on western Spitsbergen. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Inflow of Warm Water to the Inner Hornsund Fjord, Svalbard: Exchange Mechanisms and Influence on Local Sea Ice Cover and Glacier Front Melting

“…Positive wind stress is defined as being directed out of the fjord. The long‐term (1979–2009) wind record in Hornsund shows prevailing wind directions from east (E) and north‐east (NE), along the fjord axis (Marsz et al, ). This is also true for the long‐term monthly means, especially for the period from December to April.…”

“…This is also true for the long‐term monthly means, especially for the period from December to April. In the summer months (June–August) the frequency of westerly winds may increase (Marsz et al, ). When correlating atmospheric data to ocean current data, missing values in the wind data set were replaced by interpolation between neighboring data points and the wind time series was then interpolated onto the same time vector as the current data.…”

Modelling of the thermal regime of permafrost during 1990–2014 in Hornsund, Svalbard

“…Ground thermal conditions in Kapp Line, Svea, Ny-Ålesund and in Longyearbyen surroundings have been described by Christiansen et al (2010), in Longyearbyen by Harada and Yoshikawa (1998), in Petuniabukta by Rachlewicz and Szczuciński (2008), in Bellsund by Marsz et al (2013b), and in Kaffiøyra Plain by Sobota and Nowak (2014). Snow thicknesses on SW Spitsbergen are highly variable in the accumulation period due to the strong wind drift and thaws that occur seasonally during winter time (Luks et al 2011;Marsz et al 2013b). From September 2013 to June 2014, snow covered the ground during 241 days.…”

Pleistocene Involutions and Patterned Ground in France: Examples and Analysis Using a GIS Database

“…In contrast, the active layer is thick in ice-poor, coarsergrained materials. Thicknesses usually range between 1.0 and 2.5 m in sand (Van Tatenhove and Olesen, 1994;Smith et al, 2009;Marsz et al, 2013), especially in arid and very continental environments (Lin et al, 2015), and are up to 5 m in blocky material in alpine settings (Zenklusen Mutter and Phillips, 2012).…”