Click here to view a pdf version of the original panel format.
Mapping using remote sensing |
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Remote sensing is a science that uses images taken from satellites, airplanes and drones to create maps and identify landscape changes over time.
Permafrost Grown uses a remote sensing method called Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). LiDAR emits laser pulses that bounce off objects, allowing us to create three-dimensional maps of the canopy and ground surface, such as these maps on the left of UAF’s bicycle bumps walking trail. This field was cleared for cultivation in 1908, but in 1918 thaw subsidence caused by melting ice wedges created the mounds or “bumps.” After repeated grading attempts and reappearing mounds, the field was abandoned in the 1920s. While the forest has grown back, the mounds remain. |
Photos taken from an airplane from 1951, 1984 and 2007 show the expansion of a farm field in Fairbanks, Alaska.
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Comparing 2011 and 2017 LiDAR datasets, we measured up to 1.05 meters (3.4 feet) of subsidence and made the map on the right.
Notice that thaw subsidence does not occur everywhere in the field; this is because ground ice content in permafrost can be highly variable. |
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References:
A version of the farm expanding time series and subsidence measurement figure above is published in:
Ward Jones, M., Habeck, O.H., Ulrich, M., Crate, S., Gannon, G., Schwoerer, T., Jones, B., Kanevskiy, M., Baral, P., Maharjan, A., Steiner, J., Spring, A., Price, M.J., Bysouth, D., Forbes, B.C., Verdonen, M., Kumpula, T., Strauss, J., Windirsch, T., Poeplau, C., Shur, Y., Gaglioti, B., Parlato, N., Tao, F., Turetsky, M., Grand, S., Unc, A., and Borchard, N. (2024). Socio-ecological dynamics of diverse global permafrost-agroecosystems under environmental change. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 56(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2024.2356067.
The 2011 and 2017 LiDAR datasets used in the figure references above was provided by:
Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Survey Staff. 2013. Elevation datasets of Alaska: Alaska division of geological & geophysical surveys digital data series 4, https://elevation.alaska.gov/
A version of the farm expanding time series and subsidence measurement figure above is published in:
Ward Jones, M., Habeck, O.H., Ulrich, M., Crate, S., Gannon, G., Schwoerer, T., Jones, B., Kanevskiy, M., Baral, P., Maharjan, A., Steiner, J., Spring, A., Price, M.J., Bysouth, D., Forbes, B.C., Verdonen, M., Kumpula, T., Strauss, J., Windirsch, T., Poeplau, C., Shur, Y., Gaglioti, B., Parlato, N., Tao, F., Turetsky, M., Grand, S., Unc, A., and Borchard, N. (2024). Socio-ecological dynamics of diverse global permafrost-agroecosystems under environmental change. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 56(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2024.2356067.
The 2011 and 2017 LiDAR datasets used in the figure references above was provided by:
Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Survey Staff. 2013. Elevation datasets of Alaska: Alaska division of geological & geophysical surveys digital data series 4, https://elevation.alaska.gov/
Research led by Benjamin Jones, associate research professor at the Institute of Northern Engineering and a co-investigator on the Permafrost Grown Project.
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