Air and Ground Surface Temperature Relations in a Mountainous Basin, Wolf Creek, Yukon Territory

• Main Author: Roadhouse, Emily A
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Ottawa (Canada) 2010
• Subjects: Physical Geography; Atmospheric Sciences; Yukon; palsa; permafrost
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10393/28622; https://doi.org/10.20381/ruor-19361

The links between climate and permafrost are well known, but the precise nature of the relationship between air and ground temperatures remains poorly understood, particularly in complex mountain environments. Although previous studies indicate that elevation and potential incoming solar radiation (PISR) are the two leading factors contributing to the existence of permafrost at a given location, additional factors may also contribute significantly to the existence of mountain permafrost, including vegetation cover, snow accumulation and the degree to which individual mountain landscapes are prone to air temperature inversions. Current mountain permafrost models consider only elevation and aspect, and have not been able to deal with inversion effects in a systematic fashion. This thesis explores the relationship between air and ground surface temperatures and the presence of surface-based inversions at 27 sites within the Wolf Creek basin and surrounding area between 2001 and 2006, as a first step in developing an improved permafrost distribution TTOP model. The TTOP model describes the relationship between the mean annual air temperature and the temperature at the top of permafrost in terms of the surface and thermal offsets (Smith and Riseborough, 2002). Key components of this model are n-factors which relate air and ground climate by establishing the ratio between air and surface freezing (winter) and thawing (summer) degree-days, thus summarizing the surface energy balance on a seasonal basis. Here we examine (1) surface offsets and (2) freezing and thawing n-factor variability at a number of sites through altitudinal treeline in the southern Yukon. Thawing n-factors (nt) measured at individual sites remained relatively constant from one year to the next and may be related to land cover. During the winter, the insulating effect of a thick snow cover results in higher surface temperatures, while thin snow cover results in low surface temperatures more closely related to the winter air temperatures. The application of n-factor modeling techniques within the permafrost region, and the verification of these techniques for a range of natural surfaces, is essential to the determination of the thermal and physical response to potential climate warming in permafrost regions. The presence of temperature inversions presents a unique challenge to permafrost probability mapping in mountainous terrain. While elsewhere the existence of permafrost can be linearly related to elevation, the presence of frequent inversions challenges this assumption, affecting permafrost distribution in ways that the current modeling techniques cannot accurately predict. At sites across the Yukon, inversion-prone sites were predominantly situated in U-shaped valleys, although open slopes, mid-slope ridges and plains were also identified. Within the Wolf Creek basin and surrounding area, inversion episodes have a measurable effect on local air temperatures, occurring during the fall and winter seasons along the Mount Sima trail, and year-round in the palsa valley. Within the discontinuous permafrost zone, where average surface temperatures are often close to zero, even a relatively small change in temperature in the context of future climate change could have a widespread impact on permafrost distribution.