Numerical simulation of the interaction processes between snow cover and alpine permafrost

The occurrence of permafrost strongly depends on atmospherical, topographical and soil specific factors such as mean annual air temperature, solar radiation, snow cover and soil texture. For a better understanding of the interconnection between these individual factors in the snow cover – permafrost system, a numerical model was developed: the one-dimensional model SNOWPACK, which simulates the local snow cover from the Swiss Automatic Snow and Weather Stations (IMIS), was extended to the underlying soil by including specific soil characteristics. The soil-specific parameters of this new model were calibrated with laboratory measurements. Simulations concerning the influence of soil grain-size on temperature development were conducted. A long-term simulation of the influence of increasing mean annual air temperatures on mean annual soil-surface temperatures shows both a strong linear dependency and soil-specific sensitivity. In this paper, the calibration of the new model and the first simulation results are presented. Permafrost, Phillips, Springman & Arenson (eds) © 2003 Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse, ISBN 90 5809 582 7

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