Gridded active layer thickness across northern permafrost regions from 2003 to 2020

• Main Author: Liu, Zhihua
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2023
• Subjects: permfrost; active layer thickness; tundra; carbon; climate change; Active layer thickness; permafrost; Tundra
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10070610; https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad0f73

This dataset provides the annual gridded active layer thickness (ALT) across northern permafrost regions (NPR) at 1 km resolution for the period 2003–2020. The ALT in permafrost regions refers to the upper layer of soil that thaws and refreezes annually as a result of seasonal temperature variations. It is a critical parameter in permafrost studies because it determines the depth to which plant roots can penetrate and influences various ecological and engineering processes. This dataset was produced based on the relationship between available ALT site measurements (2966 site-years) and satellite observations of annual gridded predictors, including vegetation, temperature, soil, and topography, using a Random Forest (RF) approach. The annual ALT map for the NPR was generated using the ensemble mean of ALT from the ten best RF predictions. Extensive uncertainty analysis was also conducted. The dataset can be viewed at https://liuzh833.users.earthengine.app/view/altv1