Comparing Thermal Regime Stages along a Small Yakutian Fluvial Valley with Point Scale Measurements, Thermal Modeling, and Near Surface Geophysics

• Published in: Remote Sensing
• Main Authors: Léger, Emmanuel, Saintenoy, Albane, Grenier, Christophe, Séjourné, Antoine, Pohl, Eric, Bouchard, Frédéric, Pessel, Marc, Bazhin, Kirill, Danilov, Kencheeri, Costard, François, Mugler, Claude, Fedorov, Alexander, Khristoforov, Ivan, Konstantinov, Pavel
• Other Authors: Géosciences Paris Saclay (GEOPS), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Department of Geosciences Fribourg, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS), Melnikov Permafrost Institute, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SB RAS), Laboratoire d'Hydrogéologie et de Géochimie Isotopique (LHGI), Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire de géographie physique (LGP), Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (UP1)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), ANR-19-CE46-0003,HiPerBorea,Calul haute performance pour la quantification des impacts du changement climatique sur les régions boréales(2019)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: near-surface geophysics; river thermal influence; cryosphere; thermal modeling; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Arctic; Syrdakh; Active layer thickness; permafrost; Yakutia; Siberia
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04290509; https://hal.science/hal-04290509/document; https://hal.science/hal-04290509/file/L%C3%A9ger_et_al_RS_2023.pdf; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15102524

Arctic regions are highly impacted by the global temperature rising and its consequences and influences on the thermo-hydro processes and their feedbacks. Theses processes are especially not very well understood in the context of river–permafrost interactions and permafrost degradation. This paper focuses on the thermal characterization of a river–valley system in a continuous permafrost area (Syrdakh, Yakutia, Eastern Siberia) that is subject to intense thawing, with major consequences on water resources and quality. We investigated this Yakutian area through two transects crossing the river using classical tools such as in–situ temperature measurements, direct active layer thickness estimations, unscrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery, heat transfer numerical experiments, Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR), and Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT). Of these two transects, one was closely investigated with a long-term temperature time series from 2012 to 2018, while both of them were surveyed by geophysical and UAV data acquisition in 2017 and 2018. Thermodynamical numerical simulations were run based on the long-term temperature series and are in agreement with river thermal influence on permafrost and active layer extensions retrieved from GPR and ERT profiles. An electrical resistivity-temperature relationship highlights the predominant role of water in such a complicated system and paves the way to coupled thermo-hydro-geophysical modeling for understanding permafrost–river system evolution.