4-9 September 2022, Bonn, Germany
EMS Annual Meeting Abstracts
Vol. 19, EMS2022-217, 2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2022-217
EMS Annual Meeting 2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Climate-related operational permafrost monitoring in Svalbard and Norway

Ketil Isaksen1, Julia Lutz1, Steinar Eastwood1, Øystein Godøy1, Signe Aaboe2, Atle Sørensen1, and Lara Ferrighi1
Ketil Isaksen et al.
  • 1Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Oslo, Norway (julial@met.no)
  • 2Norwegian Meteorological Institute, PO Box 6314 Langnes, 9293 Tromsø

The web portal for cryospheric information of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET Norway), https://cryo.met.no, provides access to the latest operational data and products, as well as the current state of sea ice, snow, and permafrost in Norway, the Arctic, and the Antarctic. This contribution focuses on the operational permafrost monitoring at MET Norway and the new permafrost monitoring products on cryo.met.no.

Systematic long-term monitoring of permafrost on Svalbard and in Norway essentially began 23 years ago under the European Union-funded Permafrost and Climate in Europe (PACE) project, with the installation of ground temperature measurements in deep boreholes. Since then, more than 35 additional instrumented boreholes have been drilled in Norway and on Svalbard. In recent years, five new permafrost boreholes have been established at remote locations on Svalbard.

Here we present methods for visualising real-time permafrost temperature data from eight operational monitoring sites on Svalbard and in Norway. The most recent permafrost temperatures are compared to the climatology generated from the station's data record, which includes median, confidence intervals, extremes, and trends. There are additional operational weather stations with extended measurement programs at these locations. The collocated monitoring provides daily updated data to study and monitor the current state, trends, and the effects of e.g. extreme climate events on permafrost temperatures. The operational monitoring provides information faster than ever before, potentially assisting in the early detection of e.g. record-high active layer thickness, pronounced permafrost temperature increases, and in early warning systems for natural hazards associated with permafrost warming and degradation. Currently, data and metadata are submitted manually to the international Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost. Work is in progress to develop operational permafrost data services through the WMO Global Telecommunication System to support e.g. the WMO Global Cryosphere Watch datastream.

How to cite: Isaksen, K., Lutz, J., Eastwood, S., Godøy, Ø., Aaboe, S., Sørensen, A., and Ferrighi, L.: Climate-related operational permafrost monitoring in Svalbard and Norway, EMS Annual Meeting 2022, Bonn, Germany, 5–9 Sep 2022, EMS2022-217, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2022-217, 2022.

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