Ground displacement in permafrost terrain from Sentinel-1 time series SAR interferometry.

• Main Authors: Teshebaeva, Kanaiym, van Huissteden, Ko
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Ice; permafrost
• Online Access: https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/c5d8c4b1-6aff-48fb-acdf-ff9e2b82accd; http://hdl.handle.net/1871.1/c5d8c4b1-6aff-48fb-acdf-ff9e2b82accd

Widespread thawing of permafrost in the northern Eurasian continent cause severe problems for infrastructure and global climate. We test the potential of Sentinel-1 SAR imagery to enhance detection of surface changes in the Siberian lowlands of the northern Eurasian continent at Kytalyk research station site. We use InSAR time-series technique to detect seasonal surface movements related to permafrost active layer changes. The InSAR time-series derived seasonal ground displacement patterns align well with lithology and probably reflect the thaw of Yedoma plateaus. We consider also the fact of poor signal or lost coherence in thaw lake basins due to denser vegetation. We hypothesize that at least three explanation could be relevant for the fact that surface movements appear on 'yedoma' plateaus and appear to be absent in the thaw lake basins. First, the ice volume in the yedoma plateaus may be larger, since ice accumulation in these areas already started during the last glacial, together with sedimentation. The thaw lake basins also may have a large ice volume but this is generally restricted to the surface top layer of 1-2 m thick. The ice-rich yedoma sediments may be subject to much larger volume loss by thaw than the lake basins. Second, on many yedoma surfaces there is abundant evidence of small-scale runoff channels and erosion, by which the surface subsides; the eroded material is deposited as slope material on the side slopes of the plateaus. Third, possibly slow creep of the ice-rich material occurs. To investigate these hypothesis, further monitoring is required.