Does Permafrost Deserve Attention in Comprehensive Climate Models?

• Main Authors: Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen, Martin Stendel, Peter Kuhry, Vladimir Romanovsky, John Walsh
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: global climate; permafrost
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.419.1969; http://www.lter.uaf.edu/pdf/1651_Christensen_Stendel_2008.pdf

Traditionally, from a climate modeling perspective, permafrost is looked upon as a phenomenon impacted by climate change. However, it is well recognized that thawing permafrost may create climate feedback loops via changes in greenhouse gas emissions and surface hydrology. Only recently, these effects are being introduced in comprehensive climate models. The thermal properties of permanently frozen regions on the other hand have not been much explored in this context, mainly because models rarely resolve soil layers deeper than a few meters. One reason comes from the still rather poor ability of climate models to simulate realistic snowpack behavior, which is vital to allowing for a realistic depiction of below-surface properties. Here, we stress the sensitivities of near-surface atmospheric temperatures to inadequacies in the description of soil processes including retreat of permafrost to deeper layers under warming conditions.