Arctic hydrology and meteorology

• Main Author: Kane, D.L.
• Other Authors: United States. Department of Energy.
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Alaska Univ., Fairbanks, AK (United States). Water Research Center 1988
• Subjects: Heat Transfer; Alaska; Progress Report; Document Types; Phase Transformations; Ecosystems; Arctic Regions; Snow; Atmospheric Precipitations; Surface Waters; Hydrology; Ground Water; Meteorology; 58 Geosciences; Energy Balance; 580000 > Geosciences; Simulation; Mass Transfer; Evaporation; Computerized Simulation; Watersheds; Water 540250* > Environment; Terrestrial > Site Resource & Use Studies > (1990-); Energy Transfer; Oxygen Compounds; Usa; Historical Aspects; Hydrogen Compounds; North America; 54 Environmental Sciences; Developed Countries; Polar Regions; Arctic; permafrost
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.2172/5118405; https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1053722/

The behavior of arctic ecosystems is directly related to the ongoing physical processes of heat and mass transfer. Furthermore, this system undergoes very large fluctuations in the surface energy balance. The buffering effect of both snow and the surface organic soils can be seen by looking at the surface and 40 cm soil temperatures. The active layer, that surface zone above the permafrost table, is either continually freezing or thawing. A large percentage of energy into and out of a watershed must pass through this thin veneer that we call the active layer. Likewise, most water entering and leaving the watershed does so through the active layer. To date, we have been very successful at monitoring the hydrology of Imnavait Creek with special emphasis on the active layer processes. The major contribution of this study is that year-round hydrologic data are being collected. An original objective of our study was to define how the thermal and moisture regimes within the active layer change during an annual cycle under natural conditions, and then to define how the regime will be impacted by some imposed terrain alteration. Our major analysis of the hydrologic data sets for Imnavait Creek have been water balance evaluations for plots during snowmelt, water balance for the watershed during both rainfall and snowmelt, and the application of a hydrologic model to predict the Imnavait Creek runoff events generated by both snowmelt and rainfall.