Influence of different digital terrain models (DTMs)on alpine permafrost modeling

• Published in: Environmental Modeling & Assessment
• Main Authors: Salzmann, N. (Nadine), Gruber, S. (Stephan), Hugentobler, M. (Marco), Hoelzle, M. (Martin)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2007
• Subjects: Complex topography; Digital terrain model (DTM); High mountain permafrost; Modeling; Sensitivity; permafrost
• Online Access: https://ir.library.carleton.ca/pub/19177; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10666-006-9065-3

The thawing of alpine permafrost due to changes in atmospheric conditions can have a severe impact, e.g., on the stability of rock walls. The energy balance model, PERMEBAL, was developed in order to simulate the changes and distribution of ground surface temperature (GST) in complex high-mountain topography. In such environments, the occurrence of permafrost depends greatly on the topography, and thus, the digital terrain model (DTM) is an important input of PERMEBAL. This study investigates the influence of the DTM on the modeling of the GST. For this purpose, PERMEBAL was run with six different DTMs. Five of the six DTMs are based on the same base data, but were generated using different interpolators. To ensure that only the topographic effect on the GST is calculated, the snow module was turned off and uniform conditions were assumed for the whole tes