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K. Elger, B. Heim, H. Lantuit, J. Boike, A. Bartsch, C. Paulik, C. Duguay, S. Hachem, A. Soliman:
"ESA DUE Permafrost: Evaluation of remote sensing derived products using ground data from the Global Terrestrial Network of Permafrost (GTN-P)";
Talk: AGU, San Francisco; 2011-12-05 - 2011-12-09.

The task of the ESA DUE Permafrost project is to build up an Earth
observation service for high-latitudinal permafrost applications with extensive involvement of
the permafrost research community. The DUE Permafrost products derived from remote
sensing are land surface temperature (LST), surface soil moisture (SSM), surface frozen and
thawed state (freeze/ thaw), terrain, land cover, and surface waters. Weekly and monthly
averages for most of the DUE Permafrost products will be made available for the years 2007-
2010. The DUE Permafrost products are provided for the circumpolar permafrost area (north
of 55°N) with 25 km spatial resolution. In addition, regional products with higher spatial
resolution (300-1000 m/ pixel) were developed for five case study regions. These regions are:
(1) the Laptev Sea and Eastern Siberian Sea Region (RU, continuous very cold permafrost/
tundra), (2) the Yakutsk Region (RU, continuous cold permafrost/ taiga), (3) the Western
Siberian transect including Yamal Peninsula and Ob Region (RU, continuous to
discontinuous/ taiga-tundra), (4) the Alaska Highway Transect (US, continuous to
discontinuous/ taiga-tundra), and (5) the Mackenzie Delta and Valley Transect (CA,
continuous to discontinuous/ taiga-tundra).
The challenge of the programme is to adapt remote sensing products that are well established
and tested in agricultural low and mid-latitudinal areas for highly heterogeneous taiga/ tundra
permafrost landscapes in arctic regions. Ground data is essential for the evaluation of DUE
Permafrost products and is provided by user groups and global networks. A major part of the
DUE Permafrost core user group is contributing to GTN-P, the Global Terrestrial Network of
Permafrost. Its main programmes, the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) and
the Thermal State of Permafrost (TSP) have been thoroughly overhauled during the last
International Polar Year (2007-2008). Their spatial coverage has been extended to provide a
true circumpolar network. Ground data ranges from active layer- and snow depths, to air-,
ground-, and borehole temperature data as well as soil moisture measurements and the
description of landform and vegetation.
The GTN-P sites, with their position in different permafrost zones in the DUE Permafrost
case study regions, are highly suitable for the evaluation of DUE Permafrost remote sensing
products. Air and surface temperatures with high-temporal resolution are available for three
GTN-P sites in Siberia and compared to LST products. Daily average GTN-P borehole- and
air temperature data for 22 sites in Alaska and 6 sites in Western Siberia were used to validate
surface frozen and thawed state. The preliminary results are promising. In addition, landform
and vegetation descriptions of circumpolar GTN-P sites are used for the evaluation of global
`landcover´ remote-sensing datasets like GlobeCover, Landcover2000 and EcoClimap -
global datasets used as input for climate modeling.

GOBAL CHANGE / Remote sensing, CRYOSPHERE / Permafrost, GLOBAL CHANGE / Cryospheric change.