New publication on quantifying the carbon mobilization by abrupt permafrost thaw on the northern Taymyr Peninsula in Siberia

With climate change, Arctic hillslopes above ice-rich permafrost are vulnerable to enhanced carbon mobilization. In this work elevation change estimates generated from satellite observations reveal a substantial acceleration of carbon mobilization on the Taymyr Peninsula in Siberia between 2010 and 2021. The strong increase occurring in 2020 coincided with a severe Siberian heatwave and highlights that carbon mobilization can respond sharply and non-linearly to increasing temperatures.

21.07.2022 by Ani Renton

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Enlarged view: Overview of the RTS location and change rates in the study region — Figure caption:Overview of the RTS location and change rates in the study region. In brackets we show the number of RTSs in each class. Panel (a) shows the total study region of the first time-period (2010-2017, TP1) and the second time-period (2018-2021, TP2) with the RTS location. The total number of RTSs increase from 82 to 1404. Panel (b) shows the yearly volumetric RTS change rates in TP1 zoomed in to the study region of TP2. Panel (c) shows the yearly volumetric RTS change rates in TP2.

At the core of this work are elevation models derived from TanDEM-X observations, a bistatic satellite radar system. The high spatial and vertical resolutions allow to generate accurate elevation model time-series which can be used to follow the strongest permafrost thaw (retrogressive thaw slumps, RTS) by using the induced volumetric change. This allows us to detect and map abrupt permafrost thaw and quantify its impact and contribution to the permafrost carbon feedback.

Bernhard, P., Zwieback, S., and Hajnsek, I.: Accelerated mobilization of organic carbon from retrogressive thaw slumps on the northern Taymyr Peninsula, The Cryosphere, 16, 2819–2835, external pagehttps://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2819-2022, 2022.