Permafrost at record warmth all over the Northern Hemisphere.

[The_Global_Warmer]

http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/permafrost.html

 

 

 

Permafrost Temperature

Alaska: In 2013, new record high temperatures at 20 m depth were measured at some permafrost observatories on the North Slope of Alaska and in the Brooks Range (Fig. 62a), where measurements began in the late 1970s and early 1980s (Fig. 62b). The 20 m temperatures in 2013 were higher than in 2012 by 0.03°C at West Dock and Deadhorse (Fig. 62b) on the North Slope and by 0.06°C at Coldfoot (Fig. 62c) in the southern foothills of the Brooks Range. Permafrost temperatures at the other North Slope sites were exactly the same as in 2012, except for Happy Valley, where lower (by 0.06°C) temperatures than in 2012 were observed. At a depth of 20 m, temperature has increased since 2000 by +0.44°C per decade at West Dock, by +0.47°C per decade at Deadhorse, and by ~ +0.28°C per decade at Franklin Bluffs and Happy Valley (Fig. 62b). Permafrost temperatures in Interior Alaska (Fig. 62a) continued to decrease in 2013 (Fig. 62c), a cooling that dates back to 2007. Consequently, temperatures in 2013 at some sites in Interior Alaska were lower than those located further north, e.g., temperatures at College Peat and Birch Lake are now lower than at Old Man and Chandalar Shelf in the Brooks Range (Fig. 62). During the late 1980s, temperatures at College Peat and Birch Lake were 0.7°C higher than at Old Man and Chandalar Shelf, respectively.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fig. 62. (a) Map of Alaska showing the continuous and discontinuous permafrost zones (separated by the broken blue line) and location of a north-south transect of permafrost temperature measurement sites; ( and © time series of mean annual permafrost temperature at depths of 20 m and 15 m, respectively, below the surface at the measurement sites (updated from Romanovsky et al. 2012).

 

 

 

 

 

Canada: In 2012 (the most recent year for which data are available), temperatures in the upper 25 m of ground at Alert, northernmost Ellesmere Island, were the highest since measurements began in 1978 (Fig. 63). At a depth of 15 m in borehole BH5, temperature has increased by ~ +1.5°C per decade since 2000, which is about +1°C higher than the rate for the entire record (Table 8). Even at a depth of 24 m, temperature has increased since 2000 at a rate approaching +1°C per decade (Table 8). Note that the rate of warming at Alert is greater than on the North Slope of Alaska.

 

 

 

 

Fig. 63. Time series of mean annual permafrost temperatures at 10 and 12 m depth at Wrigley (red squares) and Norman Wells (green squares), respectively, in the discontinuous permafrost zone of the central Mackenzie River Valley, Northwest Territories, Canada, and at 15 m and 24 m depth in continuous permafrost at CFS Alert, Nunavut, Canada (updated from Smith et al. 2010, 2012). The method described in Smith et al. (2012) was used to address gaps in the data and produce a standardized record of mean annualground temperature.

 

 

 

Table 8. Rate of temperature change in boreholes at Alert, northernmost Ellesmere Island, and at Norman Wells and Wrigley in the Mackenzie River Valley.

Location Rate of change (°C/decade) Rate of change (°C/decade) Alert BH1 (24m) 0.28°C (1978-2012) 0.74°C (2000-2012) Alert BH2 (24m) 0.32°C (1978-2012) 0.98°C (2000-2012) Alert BH5 (15m) 0.48°C (1978-2012) 1.58°C (2000-2012)       Norman Wells (12 m) 0.17°C (1984-2012) 0.07°C (2000-2012) Wrigley (10 m) Insufficient data 0.2°C (2001-2012)

Permafrost in the central Mackenzie River Valley in northwestern Canada continues to warm, but much more slowly than at Alert (Fig. 63, Table 8). Note also that permafrost in this region is much warmer than it is at Alert (Fig. 63). At depths of 10-12 m, ground temperature at Norman Wells and Wrigley has risen by 0.07-0.2°C per decade since 2000. At Norman Wells, the rate of warming has decreased during the last decade (Table 8).

Russia: Permafrost temperature has increased by 1-2°C in northern Russia during the last 30 to 35 years (Romanovsky et al. 2010b). This is similar to the warming observed in Alaska during the same period. In the Polar Ural, for example, temperatures at 15 m depth at colder permafrost sites have been increasing by ~ +0.5°C per decade since the late 1980s (Fig. 64, ZS-124, R-92, and R57 sites). At the same time, at the warmer permafrost site, KT-16A, the warming has been much less pronounced (Fig. 64). At some warmer permafrost sites a slight cooling has been observed since 2009 (sites ZS-124 and KT-16a (Fig. 64).

 

 

 

 

Fig. 64. Time series of mean annual permafrost temperature at 10 m and 15 m depth at four research sites in the Polar Ural, Russia.

 

 

 

 

 

[blizzard1024]

This data shows the PDO shift in the late 1970s very well. What

does the longer term data show? Are there permafrost temperatures

farther back? Interesting stuff.