North American Circum-Arctic Permafrost Degradation Observation Using Sentinel-1 InSAR Data

In the context of global warming, the accelerated degradation of circum-Arctic permafrost is releasing a significant amount of carbon. InSAR can indirectly reflect the degradation of permafrost by monitoring its deformation. This study selected three typical permafrost regions in North America: Alas...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Remote Sensing
Main Authors: Shaoyang Guan, Chao Wang, Yixian Tang, Lichuan Zou, Peichen Yu, Tianyang Li, Hong Zhang
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024
Subjects:
permafrost
Arctic
long-term monitoring
InSAR
Sentinel-1
Science
Q
Global warming
Great Bear Lake
Thermokarst
Tundra
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16152809
https://doaj.org/article/ea10d884ca29467ba2dca779e25461b3
Description
Summary:In the context of global warming, the accelerated degradation of circum-Arctic permafrost is releasing a significant amount of carbon. InSAR can indirectly reflect the degradation of permafrost by monitoring its deformation. This study selected three typical permafrost regions in North America: Alaskan North Slope, Northern Great Bear Lake, and Southern Angikuni Lake. These regions encompass a range of permafrost landscapes, from tundra to needleleaf forests and lichen-moss, and we used Sentinel-1 SAR data from 2018 to 2021 to determine their deformation. In the InSAR process, due to the prolonged snow cover in the circum-Arctic permafrost, we used only SAR data collected during the summer and applied a two-stage interferogram selection strategy to mitigate the resulting temporal decorrelation. The Alaskan North Slope showed pronounced subsidence along the coastal alluvial plains and uplift in areas with drained thermokarst lake basins. Northern Great Bear Lake, which was impacted by wildfires, exhibited accelerated subsidence rates, revealing the profound and lasting impact of wildfires on permafrost degradation. Southern Angikuni Lake’s lichen and moss terrains displayed mild subsidence. Our InSAR results indicate that more than one-third of the permafrost in the North American study area is degrading and that permafrost in diverse landscapes has different deformation patterns. When monitoring the degradation of large-scale permafrost, it is crucial to consider the unique characteristics of each landscape.

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