GGD651 Arctic EASE-Grid Freeze and Thaw Depths, 1901 - 2002 Zhang, T., J. McCreight, and R.G. Barry Arctic EASE-Grid Freeze and Thaw Depths, 1901 - 2002 2006-01-31 Boulder, Colorado USA NSIDC: National Snow and Ice Data Center http://nsidc.org/data/ggd651.html Investigator Tingjun Z Zhang nsidc@nsidc.org 1 303 492-6199 x 1 303 492-2359 x

University of Colorado

National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology

UCB449

Boulder Colorado 80309-0449 USA Investigator R. G. Barry

University of Colorado

National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology

449 UCB

Boulder CO 80309-0449 USA Technical Contact NSIDC User Services nsidc@nsidc.org 1 303 492-6199 x 1 303 492-2468 x

National Snow and Ice Data Center

CIRES, 449 UCB

University of Colorado

Boulder CO 80309-0449 USA EARTH SCIENCE Cryosphere Frozen Ground Active Layer EARTH SCIENCE Land Surface Frozen Ground Active Layer Freeze/Thaw Depth Geoscientific Information edaphic factor Freeze depth Freezing Degree Days Freezing Index Seasonal Thaw Layer Stefan solution Thaw Depth Thaw Depth Measurements Thaw Depths Thawing Degree-day Thawing Degree Days Thawing Index 1901-01-01 2002-12-31 complete 50 90 -180 180 GEOGRAPHIC REGION ARCTIC The relationship between freeze/thaw depth and freezing and thawing indices has been demonstrated in several places. For example, Brown et al. (2000) review the relationship between thaw depth and the annual thawing index. Romanovsky and Osterkamp (1995), Zhang et al. (1997), Nelson et al. (1998), Klene et al. (2001), and Hinkel and Nelson (2003) all demonstrate the general validity of the approach. Nelson et al. (1997) used the approach to map to map active layer depth for the Kuparuk River Basin in Alaska. Zhang et al. (2005b) also use the approach to map active layer depth in the Ob, Yenisey, and Lena River Basins of Russia. The quality of the input freezing and thawing indices is described in Frauenfeld, et al. (submitted) and in the documentation for the data set. The investigators conclude they are adequate for broad scale analysis. The difficulty lies in calculating the edaphic factors. There is some uncertainty in the estimation of the edaphic factors as discussed in Zhang et al. (2005b). Overall this approach is reasonable for broad scale calculations and for estimating the response of freeze and thaw depth to different climatological factors. English NSIDC_FGDC NSIDC National Snow and Ice Data Center http://nsidc.org Data Center Contact NSIDC User Services nsidc@nsidc.org 1 303 492-6199 1 303 492-2468

National Snow and Ice Data Center

CIRES, 449 UCB

University of Colorado

Boulder CO 80309-0449 USA NSIDC_FGDC NSIDC Frozen Ground Data Center http://nsidc.org/fgdc/ Data Center Contact NSIDC FGDC User Services nsidc@nsidc.org 1 303 492-6199 1 303 492-2468

National Snow and Ice Data Center

CIRES, 449 UCB

University of Colorado

Boulder CO 80309-0449 USA FTP 479.4 MB ASCII Text Brown, J., K. M. Hinkel, and F. E. Nelson. 2000. The Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) program: Research designs and initial results. Polar Geogr., 24(3), 163-258. Frauenfeld, O. W., T. Zhang, and J. L. McCreight. Submitted. Climatology and variability of the 20th century Northern Hemisphere freezing/thawing index. International Journal of Climatology. Hinkel, K. M., and F. E. Nelson. 2003. Spatial and temporal patterns of active layer thickness at Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) sites in northern Alaska, 1995-2000. J. Geophys. Res., 108(D2), 8168. doi:10.1029/2001JD000927. Klene, A. E., F. E. Nelson, N. I. Shiklomanov, and K. M. Hinkel. 2001. The N-factor in natural landscapes: Variability of air and soil-surface temperatures, Kuparuk River Basin, Alaska. Arct. Antarct. Alp. Res., 33(2), 140-148. Knowles, K. 2004. EASE-Grid land cover data resampled from AVHRR Global 1 km land cover, Version 2, March 1992 - April 1993. Boulder CO, USA: National Snow and Ice Data Center. Digital Media. Mitchell T. D. and P. D. Jones. 2005. An improved method of constructing a database of monthly climate observations and associated high-resolution grids. International Journal of Climatology 25, 693-712. Nelson, F. E., N. I. Shiklomanov, G. R. Mueller, K. M. Hinkel, D. A. Walker, and J. G. Bockheim. 1997. Estimating active-layer thickness over a large region: Kuparuk River basin, Alaska, U.S.A. Arct. Alp. Res., 29(4), 367-378. Nelson, F. E., and S. I. Outcalt. 1987. A computational method for prediction and regionalization of permafrost. Arct. Alp. Res., 19, 279-288. Nelson, F. E., S. I. Outcalt, J. Brown, N. I. Shiklomanov, and K. M. Hinkel. 1998. Spatial and temporal attributes of the active-layer thickness record, Barrow, Alaska, U.S.A., in Lewkowicz, A. and M. Allard (editors). 1998. Proceedings of 7th International Conference on Permafrost pp. 797-802, Ste-Foy, Canada: Cent. d'Etudes Nordique, Univ. Laval. Romanovsky, V. E., and T. E. Osterkamp. 1995. Interannual variations of the thermal regime of the active layer and near-surface permafrost in Northern Alaska. Permafrost Periglacial Proc., 6, 313-335. Zhang, T., O. W. Frauenfeld, J. McCreight, and R. G. Barry. 2005a. Northern Hemisphere EASE-Grid annual freezing and thawing indices, 1901 - 2002. Boulder, CO: National Snow and Ice Data Center. Digital media. Zhang, T., O. W. Frauenfeld, M. C. Serreze, A. Etringer, C. Oelke, J. McCreight, R. G. Barry, D. Gilichinsky, D. Yang, H. Ye, F. Ling, and S. Chudinova. 2005b. Spatial and temporal variability in active layer thickness over the Russian Arctic drainage basin. J Geophysical Research, Vol. 110, D16101. doi:10.1029/2004JD005642. Zhang, T., T. E. Osterkamp, and K. Stamnes. 1997. Effects of climate on the active layer and permafrost on the north slope of Alaska, U.S.A. Permafrost Periglacial Proc., 8, 45-67.

This data set contains mean, median, minimum and maximum freeze and thaw depths for each year from 1901 to 2002 on the 25 km resolution Equal-Area Scalable Earth Grid (EASE-Grid) for areas north of 50 deg. Freeze and thaw depths are estimated using a variant of the Stefan solution using an edaphic factor and freezing or thawing indices as inputs. The edaphic factor is estimated based on different land surface types; the freezing and thawing indices are from Northern Hemisphere EASE-Grid annual freezing and thawing indices, 1901 - 2002 (Zhang, et al. 2005). Two ASCII files are available for each year for freeze depth and thaw depth, respectively. Each file is approximately 25.6 MB in size. In addition, there is one 10.5 MB ASCII file defining the latitude and longitude coordinates for each grid point. The data set is available via FTP as three compressed files.

VIEW RELATED INFORMATION http://nsidc.org/data/ease/ All About EASE-Grid VIEW RELATED INFORMATION http://nsidc.org/data/ggd649.html Northern Hemisphere EASE-Grid Annual Freezing and Thawing Indices, 1901 - 2002 CEOS IDN DIF 9.7 2006-01-31 2012-09-18 deleted dupe URLs in Related URL field