In: Environmental Research Letters, 2020, vol. 15, no. 10, p. 104070
This paper reviews and analyses the past 20 years of change and variability of European mountain permafrost in response to climate change based on time series of ground temperatures along a south–north transect of deep boreholes from Sierra Nevada in Spain (37°N) to Svalbard (78°N), established between 1998 and 2000 during the EU-funded PACE (Permafrost and Climate in Europe) project. In...
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In: Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems, 2020, vol. 9, no. 2020-2, p. 317–336
Climate-induced warming increasingly leads to degradation of high-alpine permafrost. In order to develop early warning systems for imminent slope destabilization, knowledge about hydrological flow processes in the subsurface is urgently needed. Due to the fast dynamics associated with slope failures, non- or minimally invasive methods are required for inexpensive and timely characterization...
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In: Frontiers in Earth Sc-ience, 2020, vol. 8, p. -
Quantification of ground ice is crucial for understanding permafrost systems and modeling their ongoing degradation. The volumetric ice content is however rarely estimated in permafrost studies, as it is particularly difficult to retrieve. Standard borehole temperature monitoring is unable to provide any ice content estimation, whereas non-invasive geophysical techniques, such as refraction ...
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In: The Cryosphere, 2019, vol. 13, no. 10, p. 2557–2578
Mountain permafrost is sensitive to climate change and is expected to gradually degrade in response to the ongoing atmospheric warming trend. Long-term monitoring of the permafrost thermal state is a key task, but problematic where temperatures are close to 0 ∘C because the energy exchange is then dominantly related to latent heat effects associated with phase change (ice–water), rather...
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In: The Cryosphere, 2017, vol. 11, no. 6, p. 2957–2974
Geophysical methods are often used to characterize and monitor the subsurface composition of permafrost. The resolution capacity of standard methods, i.e. electrical resistivity tomography and refraction seismic tomography, depends not only on static parameters such as measurement geometry, but also on the temporal variability in the contrast of the geophysical target variables (electrical...
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In: Geomorphology, 2017, vol. 290, p. 101–113
The talus slope at Flüelapass was the first mountain permafrost study site in Switzerland in the 1970s and the presence of ice-rich permafrost at the foot of the slope has been investigated in the context of several studies focusing on the role of snow cover distribution. We review previously developed hypotheses and present new ones using various data sources, such as temperature...
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In: The Cryosphere, 2016, vol. 10, no. 6, p. 2693–2719
Permafrost is a widespread phenomenon in mountainous regions of the world such as the European Alps. Many important topics such as the future evolution of permafrost related to climate change and the detection of permafrost related to potential natural hazards sites are of major concern to our society. Numerical permafrost models are the only tools which allow for the projection of the future...
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In: Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 2011, vol. 22, no. 2, p. 361–377
A ten-year record (1999–2009) of annual mean ground surface temperatures (MGSTs) and mean ground temperatures (MGTs) was analysed for 16 monitoring sites in Jotunheimen and on Dovrefjell, southern Norway. Warming has occurred at sites with cold permafrost, marginal permafrost and deep seasonal frost. Ongoing permafrost degradation is suggested both by direct temperature monitoring and indirect...
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In: Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 2011, vol. 22, no. 4, p. 306–319
A new automated electrical resistivity tomography (A-ERT) system is described that allows continuous measurements of the electrical resistivity distribution in high-mountain or polar terrain. The advantages of continuous resistivity monitoring, as opposed to single measurements at irregular time intervals, are illustrated using the permafrost monitoring station at the Schilthorn, Swiss Alps. Data...
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In: Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 2009, vol. 20, no. 3, p. 269-284
The inversion and interpretation of electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) data from coarse blocky and ice-rich permafrost sites are challenging due to strong resistivity contrasts and high contact resistances. To assess temporal changes during ERT monitoring (ERTM), corresponding inversion artefacts have to be separated from true subsurface changes. Appraisal techniques serve to analyse an ERTM...
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