Thawing of the Active Layer on the Coastal Plain of the Alaskan Arctic

Heat conduction with seasonal freezing and thawing in an active layer near a tower foundation

“…It provides estimates of the surface temperature and active-layer thickness. It has been widely used for the spatial distribution of the active-layer thickness over a large area [9][10][11]. Romanovsky and Osterkamp [10] reviewed several analytical solutions for the calculation of active layer thickness.…”

“…It can eventually cause settlement, subsidence and failure of the foundation [4]. Several site monitoring measurements [5][6][7] and past active layer studies [8][9][10][11] have shown an increase of ALT due to climate change. This will likely intensify the problem with infrastructure in northern communities.…”

“…It is documented in books by Carslaw and Jaeger [16], Lunardini [1] and Naterer [17]. The quasi-steady approximation to the Neumann problem [10] and Stefan solution [18] is a well-known model used to predict the depth of thaw in soils when little site-specific information is available. The general form and different variations of the Stefan equation have been used frequently for examination of the maximum active layer thaw depth and spatial variability of the active layer [19][20][21].…”

Influence of vegetation on the ground thermal regime in continental Antarctica

“…These data confirm recent evidences in the High Arctic (i.e., Hinzman et al, 2005;Osterkamp, 2005) where it was observed that there is no conclusive evidences of an increase in the thickness of the active layer with increasing average annual air temperature. This fact is not surprising because it is known that active layer thickness depends mainly on the ground surface temperature during the thawing period at least in the Arctic areas (i.e., Romanovsky and Osterkamp, 1997).…”

Arctic RCM simulations of temperature and precipitation derived indices relevant to future frozen ground conditions

“…An increase in MAAT is expected to cause an increase in ALT (Romanovsky and Osterkamp, 1997), especially in the regions with warm permafrost (mean annual temperatures in permafrost between 0°C and −2°C), an initiation of permafrost thawing, and a possible move of the outer boundaries of seasonally frozen ground and permafrost northward and upwards in altitude. The projected increase of MAAT is very pronounced within and at the end of the 21st century ( Fig.…”