Thursday, 30 August 2007 - 10:30 AM
4.A.C-2

Permafrost and active layer monitoring in the Maritime Antarctic. Preliminary results from CALM sites on Livingston and Deception Islands

Miguel Ramos1, G. Vieira2, S. Gruber3, J. Blanco1, C. Hauck4, M. Hidalgo1, D. Tome1, M. Neves2, and A. Trindade2. (1) Department of Physics, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Spain, (2) Centre for Geographical Studies, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal, (3) Glaciology and Geomorphodynamics Group, Department of Geography., University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, (4) Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research, Forschungszentrum., Karlsruhe/University of Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany

The focus of this paper is to describe the results obtained from the scientific work and experiments performed on Livingston and Deception Islands. Located in the South Shetland archipelago, these islands are one of the most sensitive regions with respect to climate change over the last 50 years. Three CALM sites were installed to record the thermal regime and the behaviour of the active layer in different places with similar climatology but which have different soil composition, porosity, and water content. The influence of the climate change on permafrost degradation will be the focus of this paper’s objectives. Preliminary results on the maximum active layer thickness, the active layer temperature evolution, snow thickness, and air temperatures obtained in 2006 allow an early characterization of the energy exchange mechanism between the ground and the atmosphere in the CALM-S sites to be made.

[Manuscript]

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