CRYOLINK Permafrost and seasonal frost in Southern Norway; understanding and modelling the atmosphere-ground temperature coupling

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in Arctic and high-mountain regions. Above the natural tree line Norway is characterised by a modern Arctic environment, and the modern southern boundary for Scandinavian permafrost is located in the mountain s of Southern Norway. Permafrost and seasonal frost are considered key components of the cryosphere, and the climate-permafrost relation has acquired added importance with the increasing awareness and concern of rising temperatures. CRYOLINK aims at impro ving knowledge on past and present ground temperatures, seasonal frost, permafrost distribution and related periglacial processes in Southern Norway and adjoining regions of the North Atlantic region (Greenland and Iceland), by addressing the fundamental problem of heat transfer between the atmosphere and the ground surface. Methodologically, the project will develop functional thermal offset models linking air temperatures to ground and permafrost temperatures through seasonal surface transfer functions and subsurface thermal properties based on field observations. The project will further develop and apply transient heat transfer models in 1D and 2D to address past and future heat transport into the ground. The project ultimately will develop regionally distributed models to address the distributions of surface and ground temperatures in space, and annual thaw and freezing depths. Within this task we will combine gridded meteorological information, a distributed snow model, surface and subsurface charac teristics within both a equilibrium-based and a transient heat-flux model. The outcome is expected to be of importance for infrastructure maintenance (seasonal frost), slope stability (permafrost) and climate impact response of the landscape.