Session Announcement and Call for Abstracts
Remote Sensing of Changes in Terrestrial Permafrost
American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting
15-19 December 2008
San Francisco, California
Abstract Submission Deadline: 10 September 2008
For further information, please go to:
http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm08/?content=search&show=detail&sessid=185
Or contact:
Guido Grosse
ffgg1 [at] uaf.edu
Papers are invited for Session C10: " Remote sensing of changes in
terrestrial permafrost" being convened at the AGU Fall Meeting on
15-19 December 2008 in San Francisco, California.
Session description:
Permafrost covers about one fourth of the Earth's land surface and is an
important component of the cryosphere. Permafrost dynamics during
periods of global change are increasingly recognized as an important
factor in biogeochemical cycling, topographic and hydrological change,
and, recently, in engineering and infrastructure development. Remote
sensing of permafrost and permafrost landscapes is a young discipline
with some hurdles to overcome: in contrast with ice sheets and glaciers,
permafrost is a subsurface feature of the cryosphere solely defined by
the temperature of the ground. Spaceborne and airborne remote sensing of
permafrost has been primarily restricted to the interpretation of
surficial properties to indirectly derive subsurface permafrost
characteristics. However, the possible rapid changes in permafrost
during climate warming or after surface disturbance can be monitored
directly with a broad variety of remote sensing techniques. Of highest
interest for the permafrost and climate change research community are
quantitative analyses of change, matter and energy fluxes, and the
physical properties of permafrost. Often, numerical modeling and
intensive ground truthing is involved to support these remote sensing
studies.
For this session we invite abstracts that deal with remote sensing of
changes in permafrost properties and dynamics of permafrost-related
features. This includes, but is not limited to, the quantitative remote
sensing of permafrost dynamics due to thermal erosion and abrasion of
coasts, lake shores, and stream banks, thermokarst subsidence,
thermo-erosion, frost heave and thaw subsidence, thaw slumping,
solifluction, and rock glacier movement; the derivation of surface and
sub-surface properties like active layer depth and permafrost
temperatures, soil moisture and ground ice contents; the establishment
of quantitative relationships between surface features and processes
(vegetation, soils, wild fires, human-induced disturbances) and
permafrost state and dynamics; the use of remotely sensed data in
numerical modeling of permafrost; and the use of remote sensing in
detecting and dealing with permafrost-related changes imposed on
infrastructure and development in the polar regions and mountainous
areas.
Further conference information and abstract submission procedures are
available at: http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm08/
Or contact:
Guido Grosse
Email: ffgg1 [at] uaf.edu