Single-year thermal regime and inferred permafrost occurrence in the upper Ganglass catchment of the cold-arid Himalaya, Ladakh, India

• Published in: Science of The Total Environment
• Main Authors: Wani, J.M. (John Mohd), Thayyen, R.J. (Renoj J.), Gruber, S. (Stephan), Ojha, C.S.P. (Chandra Shekhar Prasad), Stumm, D. (Dorothea)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Active layer thickness; Cold-arid; GEOtop model; Himalayas; Permafrost; Indian; permafrost
• Online Access: https://ir.library.carleton.ca/pub/25687; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134631

Cold-arid regions of the trans-Himalaya in the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) is suspected to have a significant area of permafrost. However, information on the ground thermal regime of these permafrost areas is so far not available. This study bridge this knowledge gap by analysing the sub-surface thermal regime of selected sites in the Ganglass catchment, Ladakh range. Near surface ground temperature data recorded during September 2016 to August 2017 using 24-miniature temperature data loggers distributed across 12 plots and covering an elevation range of 4700–5612 m a.s.l. are used in this study. Permafrost characteristics including plausible ranges of thermal offset, active-layer thickness and mean annual ground temperature at 10 m depth were estimated by driving a one-dimensional heat conduction model. Two statistical models were used to map first order estimates of permafrost area in this 15.4 km2 catchment. Study suggest permafrost occurrence at