Potentials and pitfalls of permafrost active layer monitoring using the HVSR method: a case study in Svalbard

Köhler, Andreas; Weidle, Christian

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-7-1-2019

Articles | Volume 7, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-7-1-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

From process to signal – advancing environmental...

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-7-1-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 7, issue 1

Research article

|

10 Jan 2019

Research article |

| 10 Jan 2019

Potentials and pitfalls of permafrost active layer monitoring using the HVSR method: a case study in Svalbard

Andreas Köhler and Christian Weidle

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-7-1-2019-supplement

Data sets

Soil data at station Bayelva (1998--2017, level 2, version 1) J. Boike, I. Juszak, S. Lange, S. Chadburn, E. Burke, P. P. Overduin, K. Roth, O. Ippisch, N. Bornemann, L. Stern, I. Gouttevin, and E. Hauber and Westermann, S. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.882061

eKlima re3data.org https://doi.org/10.17616/R3Q63H

Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory (ASL)/USGS: Global Seismograph Network (GSN - IRIS/USGS) Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory (ASL)/USGS https://doi.org/10.7914/sn/iu

GIPP Experiment Database GFZ http://gipp.gfz-potsdam.de/webapp/projects/view/536

Water level and tidal information Ny-Ålesund Kartverket https://www.kartverket.no/en/sehavniva/Lokasjonsside/?cityid=9000015&city=Ny-%C3%85lesund

Short summary

The uppermost part of permanently frozen ground can thaw during summer and refreeze during winter. We use a method based on naturally generated seismic waves to continuously monitor these changes close to the research settlement of Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard between April and August 2016. Our results reveal some potential pitfalls when interpreting temporal variations in the data. However, we show that a careful data analysis makes this method a very useful tool for long-term permafrost monitoring.