Active Layer Thickness and Ground Temperatures in Svalbard

July 1987 to February 1996 records from Svea, Svalbard, document snow, soil, and atmospheric conditions across three distinct sites: a gravel road, outside a building on piles, and under the same building. The dataset includes snow depth, weight, and density; active layer depth; soil moisture; and soil temperatures measured from the surface down to 8 meters, alongside air temperature, wind, and radiation measurements from 1993 onward. Several gaps exist in temperature measurements, notably from January 1991 to May 1992.

Use Cases

• Modeling permafrost thermal regime based on multi-year soil temperature profiles at various depths.
• Analyzing active layer thickness and soil moisture variability from frost tube and soil sample data.
• Studying snowpack properties and their insulating effects using snow depth, weight, and calculated density measurements.
• Investigating microclimate and heat flux around Arctic infrastructure using radiation and wind speed data.

Strengths

• Provides a multi-year time series covering nearly a decade (July 1987 - February 1996).
• Includes detailed vertical profiles with soil temperature measurements at up to 11 distinct depths.
• Captures data from three distinct site conditions (road, near-building, under-building) for comparative analysis.

Limitations

• Contains documented gaps in temperature measurements, specifically from January 1991 to May 1992.
• Metadata is incomplete, with unclear documentation on some measurement locations (e.g., air temperature sensor placement).
• Sources conflict on the last update date (1996-05-31 vs. 2026-03-13), suggesting potential metadata freshness issues.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Field measurements using sensors and data loggers, presented on the CAPS CD-ROM version 1.0 (June 1998).

Time Range

July 1987 - February 1996

Freshness

2026-03-13 06:48:18.839385

Geography

Svea, Svalbard