NORPERM, the Norwegian Permafrost Database – a TSP NORWAY IPY Legacy Title Page Abstract Instruments
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History of Geo- and Space Open Access Open Sciences Advances in Science & Research Open Access Proceedings Drinking Water Drinking Water Engineering and Science Engineering and Science Open Access Access Open Discussions Discussions Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., 3, 27–54, 2010 Earth System Earth System www.earth-syst-sci-data-discuss.net/3/27/2010/ Science Science ESSDD © Author(s) 2010. This work is distributed under 3, 27–54, 2010 Open Access Open the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.Access Open Data Data This discussion paper is/has been under review for the journal Earth System Science NORPERM, the Data (ESSD). Please refer to the corresponding final paper in ESSD if available. Norwegian Permafrost Database H. Juliussen et al. NORPERM, the Norwegian Permafrost Database – a TSP NORWAY IPY legacy Title Page Abstract Instruments 1,* 1,2 3 3 H. Juliussen , H. H. Christiansen , G. S. Strand , S. Iversen , Data Provenance & Structure K. Midttømme3,**, and J. S. Rønning3,4 Tables Figures 1The University Centre in Svalbard, Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway 2 Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway J I 3Geological Survey of Norway, Trondheim, Norway 4Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway J I *Administrator of NORPERM Back Close **now at: Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, Oslo/Trondheim, Norway Full Screen / Esc Received: 15 February 2010 – Accepted: 18 February 2010 – Published: 23 February 2010 Correspondence to: H. Juliussen ([email protected]) Printer-friendly Version Published by Copernicus Publications. Interactive Discussion 27 Abstract ESSDD NORPERM – The Norwegian Permafrost Database was developed at the Geological Survey of Norway during the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007–2009 as the main 3, 27–54, 2010 data legacy of the IPY research project Permafrost Observatory Project: A Contribu- 5 tion to the Thermal State of Permafrost in Norway and Svalbard (TSP NORWAY). This NORPERM, the paper describes the structural and technical design of NORPERM. NORPERM follows Norwegian the IPY data policy of open, free, full and timely release of IPY data, and the borehole Permafrost Database metadata description follows the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTN-P) standard. The ground temperature data infrastructure in Norway and Svalbard is also H. Juliussen et al. 10 presented, focussing on the TSP NORWAY permafrost observatory installations in the North Scandinavian Permafrost Observatory and Nordenskiold¨ Land Permafrost Ob- servatory, as the data providers for NORPERM. Further developments of the database, Title Page possibly towards a regional database for the Nordic area, are also discussed. Abstract Instruments The purpose of NORPERM is to store ground temperature data safely and in a stan- 15 dard format for use in future research. NORPERM stores temperature time series from Data Provenance & Structure various depths in boreholes and from the air, snow cover, ground-surface or upper Tables Figures ground layer recorded by miniature temperature data-loggers, and temperature pro- files with depth in boreholes obtained by occasional manual logging. It contains all the temperature data from the TSP NORWAY research project, totalling 32 boreholes and J I 20 98 sites with miniature temperature data-loggers for continuous monitoring of microme- J I teorological conditions, and 6 temperature depth profiles obtained by manual borehole logging. The amount of data in the database will gradually increase as data from Back Close older, previous projects are added. NORPERM also provides links to near real-time Full Screen / Esc permafrost temperatures obtained by GSM data transfer. Printer-friendly Version Interactive Discussion 28 1 Introduction ESSDD Permafrost is ground (soil or rock and included ice and organic material) that remains at or below 0 ◦C for at least two consecutive years (van Everdingen, 1998). Permafrost 3, 27–54, 2010 underlies about 25% of the Earth’s land mass (Brown et al., 2001), and its tempera- 5 ture serves as a useful indicator of climate change and has been identified as one of NORPERM, the six cryospheric indicators of climate change by the Global Climate Observing System Norwegian (GCOS) through the Global Terrestrial Observation System (GTOS) (Burgess et al., Permafrost Database 2000). The Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTN-P) of the GCOS/GTOS is responsible for the international coordination and management of permafrost temper- H. Juliussen et al. 10 ature data and active layer depths (Burgess et al., 2000). In the last three to four decades, permafrost temperatures have increased in large ar- eas of the Arctic (Pavlov, 1994; Osterkamp and Romanovsky, 1999; Smith et al., 2005; Title Page Jorgenson et al., 2006; Osterkamp, 2007; Isaksen et al., 2007; Harris et al., 2009). Abstract Instruments The number of instrumented sites however is few, and a need for a global permafrost 15 temperature monitoring network was realized by the International Permafrost Associ- Data Provenance & Structure ation (IPA), who coordinated the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007–2009 research Tables Figures project Permafrost Observatory Project: A Contribution to the Thermal State of Per- mafrost (TSP). The main aims of the TSP project were to obtain a spatially distributed snapshot of permafrost temperatures during IPY covering the world’s permafrost re- J I 20 gions, and to significantly expand the network of boreholes for improved detection of J I future changes in the permafrost thermal state (Brown and Christiansen, 2006). In the national TSP projects, permafrost observatories were established with ground temper- Back Close ature recordings in boreholes, either as occasional logging or continuous monitoring, Full Screen / Esc and with temperature monitoring in the air, snow cover, at the ground surface and/or in 25 the upper ground to resolve climate-permafrost relationships. Recordings of the active Printer-friendly Version layer thickness for the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) network (Brown et al., 2000) were also included. It is the goal to keep the observatories running also Interactive Discussion after IPY, as International Network of Permafrost Observatories, to provide long-term 29 data series. These series will contribute to global observation programmes such as the Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) and the Pan-Antarctic Observing ESSDD System (PantOS). 3, 27–54, 2010 The Norwegian contribution to TSP,the Permafrost Observatory Project: A Contribu- 5 tion to the Thermal State of Permafrost in Norway and Svalbard (TSP NORWAY), has established permafrost observatories in the two northernmost counties of Troms and NORPERM, the Finnmark in Norway and in central and western Svalbard (Christiansen et al., 2010). Norwegian These contain 32 boreholes and 98 sites with miniature temperature data-loggers Permafrost Database (MTDs) for continuous monitoring of micrometeorological conditions (see Table 1). H. Juliussen et al. 10 The considerable amount of data acquired are handled according to the IPY data pol- icy (International Polar Year Data and Information Service – IPYDIS, http://ipydis.org), stating that data collected under the auspices of IPY-projects should be stored in se- Title Page cure repositories and made openly, freely and fully available on the shortest feasible timescale (http://ipydis.org). The GTN-P holds only metadata and summaries (Burgess Abstract Instruments 15 et al., 2000) and is thus not fulfilling these criteria, but acts as the international TSP metadatabase. National TSP projects therefore either had to use existing database Data Provenance & Structure systems such as e.g. the Cooperative Arctic Data and Information Service (CADIS) Tables Figures database of the Arctic Observing Network (AON-CADIS) used by the US-Russian TSP project (http://www.aoncadis.org/projects), or develop a database to accommodate all J I 20 the ground thermal data collected, such as done in the TSP NORWAY project by estab- lishing the Norwegian Permafrost Database (NORPERM). NORPERM was technically J I developed by the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) in cooperation with the TSP Back Close NORWAY scientists. It forms part of the national borehole database at the Geological Survey of Norway, and is an important part of the TSP NORWAY research infrastruc- Full Screen / Esc 25 ture. The aim of this paper is to present the main data legacy of the TSP NORWAY Printer-friendly Version project; the NORPERM database and its structural and technical design. We also give an overview of the pre-IPY and the IPY permafrost data infrastructure in Norway and Interactive Discussion Svalbard, with focus on the two TSP NORWAY permafrost observatories which formed 30 the basis for NORPERM. Potential future developments of NORPERM are discussed towards the end of the paper. ESSDD 3, 27–54, 2010 2 Infrastructure of permafrost temperature data in Norway and Svalbard NORPERM, the While permafrost in Svalbard is continuous except beneath large glaciers, permafrost Norwegian 5 in Norway is restricted to the mountain areas (Brown et al., 2001; Etzelmuller¨ et al., Permafrost Database 2003; Humlum et al., 2003; Harris et al., 2009). Christiansen et al. (2010) gives an overview of the thermal state of permafrost in the Nordic region during IPY, showing H. Juliussen et al. that the temperature in the upper part of the permafrost in the Norwegian mountains is above −1 ◦C except in the highest-lying locations, while in Svalbard it is in the range