InSAR measurements of surface deformation over permafrost on the North Slope of Alaska

[1] Ground-based measurements of active layer thickness provide useful data for validating/calibrating remote sensing and modeling results. However, these in situ measurements are usually site-specific with limited spatial coverage. Here we apply interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) to measure surface deformation over permafrost on the North Slope of Alaska during the 1992–2000 thawing seasons. We find significantly systematic differences in surface deformation between floodplain areas and the tundra-covered areas away from the rivers. Using floodplain areas as the reference for InSAR's relative deformation measurements, we find seasonally varying vertical displacements of 1–4 cm with subsidence occurring during the thawing season and a secular subsidence of 1–4 cm/decade. We hypothesize that the seasonal subsidence is caused by thaw settlement of the active layer and that the secular subsidence is probably due to thawing of ice-rich permafrost near the permafrost table. These mechanisms could explain why in situ measurements on Alaskan North Slope reveal negligible trends in active layer thickness during the 1990s, despite the fact that atmospheric and permafrost temperatures in this region increased during that time. This study demonstrates that surface deformation measurements from InSAR are complementary to more traditional in situ measurements of active layer thickness, and can provide new insights into the dynamics of permafrost systems and changes in permafrost conditions.

[1]  W. Farrell.  Deformation of the Earth by surface loads , 1972 .

[2]  Urs Wegmüller,et al.  Arid land surface characterization with repeat-pass SAR interferometry , 2000, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[3]  Jeffrey P. Walker,et al.  THE GLOBAL LAND DATA ASSIMILATION SYSTEM , 2004 .

[4]  J. R. Mackay,et al.  A Frost Tube for the Determination of Freezing in the Active Layer above Permafrost , 1973 .

[5]  Michael J. Oimoen,et al.  The National Elevation Dataset , 2002 .

[6]  E. R. Pullman,et al.  Thaw Settlement in Soils of the Arctic Coastal Plain, Alaska , 2007 .

[7]  S. M. Graves,et al.  Beaufort Sea coastal erosion, sediment flux, shoreline evolution, and the erosional shelf profile , 1988 .

[8]  Howard A. Zebker,et al.  Decorrelation in interferometric radar echoes , 1992, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[9]  R. Barry,et al.  Interdecadal changes in seasonal freeze and thaw depths in Russia , 2004 .

[10]  C. Werner,et al.  Radar interferogram filtering for geophysical applications , 1998 .

[11]  Mark C. Serreze,et al.  Modeling evidence for recent warming of the Arctic soil thermal regime , 2004 .

[12]  Kenneth M. Hinkel,et al.  Estimating active-layer thickness over a large region: Kuparuk River Basin, Alaska, U.S.A , 1997 .

[13]  Xin Li,et al.  Permafrost and climatic change in China , 2000 .

[14]  R. Hirsch,et al.  A Nonparametric Trend Test for Seasonal Data With Serial Dependence , 1984 .

[15]  T. Wright,et al.  Multi-interferogram method for measuring interseismic deformation: Denali Fault, Alaska , 2007 .

[16]  Tingjun Zhang.  Influence of the seasonal snow cover on the ground thermal regime: An overview , 2005 .

[17]  Oleg A. Anisimov,et al.  Global warming and active-layer thickness: results from transient general circulation models , 1997 .

[18]  Jerry Brown,et al.  THE PERFORMANCE OF A FROST‐TUBE FOR THE DETERMINATION OF SOIL FREEZING AND THAWING DEPTHS , 1972 .

[19]  Shusun Li,et al.  Detection of winter frost heaving of the active layer of Arctic permafrost using SAR differential interferograms , 1999, IEEE 1999 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. IGARSS'99 (Cat. No.99CH36293).

[20]  T. Herring,et al.  GPS Meteorology: Remote Sensing of Atmospheric Water Vapor Using the Global Positioning System , 1992 .

[21]  P. Visser,et al.  Precise orbit determination and gravity field improvement for the ERS satellites , 1998 .

[22]  W. Peltier.  GLOBAL GLACIAL ISOSTASY AND THE SURFACE OF THE ICE-AGE EARTH: The ICE-5G (VM2) Model and GRACE , 2004 .

[23]  Pierre-Jean Alasset,et al.  InSAR monitoring of landslides on permafrost terrain in canada , 2007, 2007 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.

[24]  Knut Stamnes,et al.  Effects of Climate on the Active Layer and Permafrost on the North Slope of Alaska, U.S.A. , 1997 .

[25]  Alan E. Taylor,et al.  REGIONAL ACTIVE LAYER MONITORING ACROSS THE SPORADIC, DISCONTINUOUS AND CONTINUOUS PERMAFROST ZONES, MACKENZIE VALLEY, NORTHWESTERN CANADA , 1998 .

[26]  R. Hanssen.  Radar Interferometry: Data Interpretation and Error Analysis , 2001 .

[27]  H. Melling,et al.  Canadian cryospheric response to an anomalous warm summer: A synthesis of the climate change action fund project “the state of the arctic cryosphere during the extreme warm summer of 1998” , 2006 .

[28]  J. F. Nixon.  EFFECT OF CLIMATIC WARMING ON PILE CREEP IN PERMAFROST , 1990 .

[29]  P. Rosen,et al.  Atmospheric effects in interferometric synthetic aperture radar surface deformation and topographic maps , 1997 .

[30]  U. Wegmüller.  The effect of freezing and thawing on the microwave signatures of bare soil. , 1990 .

[31]  T. Osterkamp.  The recent warming of permafrost in Alaska , 2005 .

[32]  Roger G. Barry,et al.  Spatial and temporal variability in active layer thickness over the Russian Arctic drainage basin , 2005 .

[33]  K. R. Everett,et al.  Glossary of Permafrost and Related Ground-Ice Terms , 1989 .

[34]  Tingjun Zhang,et al.  Some characteristics of the climate in northern Alaska, U.S.A. , 1996 .

[35]  F. Nelson,et al.  The circumpolar active layer monitoring (calm) program: Research designs and initial results , 2000 .

[36]  D. R. Fatland,et al.  Penetration depth as a DInSAR observable and proxy for soil moisture , 2003, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[37]  Laurence C. Smith,et al.  Emerging Applications of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) in Geomorphology and Hydrology , 2002 .

[38]  Tazio Strozzi,et al.  Detecting and quantifying mountain permafrost creep from in situ inventory, space-borne radar interferometry and airborne digital photogrammetry , 2004 .

[39]  Zhong Lu,et al.  InSAR detects possible thaw settlement in the Alaskan Arctic Coastal Plain , 2008 .

[40]  T. E. Osterkamp,et al.  Characteristics of the recent warming of permafrost in Alaska , 2007 .

[41]  Gianfranco Fornaro,et al.  A new algorithm for surface deformation monitoring based on small baseline differential SAR interferograms , 2002, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[42]  Douglas L. Kane,et al.  Hydrologic and thermal properties of the active layer in the Alaskan Arctic , 1991 .

[43]  David D. Parrish,et al.  NORTH AMERICAN REGIONAL REANALYSIS , 2006 .

[44]  P. Rosen,et al.  SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR INTERFEROMETRY TO MEASURE EARTH'S SURFACE TOPOGRAPHY AND ITS DEFORMATION , 2000 .

[45]  C. Werner,et al.  Satellite radar interferometry: Two-dimensional phase unwrapping , 1988 .

[46]  Karim E. Mattar,et al.  Influence of ionospheric electron density fluctuations on satellite radar interferometry , 2000 .

[47]  D. Agnew,et al.  The complete (3‐D) surface displacement field in the epicentral area of the 1999 MW7.1 Hector Mine Earthquake, California, from space geodetic observations , 2001 .

[48]  Sharon L. Smith,et al.  Active‐layer characteristics and summer climatic indices, Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories, Canada , 2009 .

[49]  P. Rosen,et al.  Updated repeat orbit interferometry package released , 2004 .

[50]  J. R. Mackay,et al.  Disturbances to the tundra and forest tundra environment of the western Arctic , 1970 .

[51]  F. Nixon,et al.  Recent warming impacts in the Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories, and northern Yukon Territory coastal areas , 2000 .

[52]  Kenneth M. Hinkel,et al.  Spatial and temporal patterns of active layer thickness at Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) sites in northern Alaska, 1995–2000 , 2003 .

[53]  F. Nelson,et al.  Application of differential global positioning systems to monitor frost heave and thaw settlement in tundra environments , 2003 .

[54]  Vladimir E. Romanovsky,et al.  Thawing of the Active Layer on the Coastal Plain of the Alaskan Arctic , 1997 .