Session Announcement and Call for Abstracts
Remote sensing of changes in terrestrial permafrost
American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting
15-19 December 2008
San Francisco, California

Abstract Submission Deadline: 10 September 2008

For further information, please go to:
http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm08/?content=search&show=detail&sessid=185
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Papers are invited for Session C10: " Remote sensing of changes in terrestrial permafrost" being convened at the AGU Fall Meeting on
15-19 December 2008 in San Francisco, California.

Session description:
Permafrost covers about one fourth of the Earth’s land surface and is an important component of the cryosphere. Permafrost dynamics during periods of global change are increasingly recognized as an important factor in biogeochemical cycling, topographic and hydrological change, and, recently, in engineering and infrastructure development. Remote sensing of permafrost and permafrost landscapes is a young discipline with some hurdles to overcome: in contrast with ice sheets and glaciers, permafrost is a subsurface feature of the cryosphere solely defined by the temperature of the ground. Spaceborne and airborne remote sensing of permafrost has been primarily restricted to the interpretation of surficial properties to indirectly derive subsurface permafrost characteristics. However, the possible rapid changes in permafrost during climate warming or after surface disturbance can be monitored directly with a broad variety of remote sensing techniques. Of highest interest for the permafrost and climate change research community are quantitative analyses of change, matter and energy fluxes, and the physical properties of permafrost. Often, numerical modeling and intensive ground truthing is involved to support these remote sensing studies.
For this session we invite abstracts that deal with remote sensing of changes in permafrost properties and dynamics of permafrost-related features. This includes, but is not limited to, the quantitative remote sensing of permafrost dynamics due to thermal erosion and abrasion of coasts, lake shores, and stream banks, thermokarst subsidence, thermo-erosion, frost heave and thaw subsidence, thaw slumping, solifluction, and rock glacier movement; the derivation of surface and sub-surface properties like active layer depth and permafrost temperatures, soil moisture and ground ice contents; the establishment of quantitative relationships between surface features and processes (vegetation, soils, wild fires, human-induced disturbances) and permafrost state and dynamics; the use of remotely sensed data in numerical modeling of permafrost; and the use of remote sensing in detecting and dealing with permafrost-related changes imposed on infrastructure and development in the polar regions and mountainous areas.

Conveners:
Guido Grosse
University of Alaska Fairbanks
ffgg1@uaf.edu

Hugues Lantuit
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research Potsdam
Hugues.Lantuit@awi.de

Paul Overduin
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research Potsdam
Paul.Overduin@awi.de

Vladimir E. Romanovsky
University of Alaska Fairbanks
ffver@uaf.edu

Further conference information and abstract submission procedures are available at: http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm08/