Permafrost

associated soil surface temperature and thaw-depth evolution and distributions.
Key words: snow, permafrost, model, soil temperature, thaw
Micrometeorological measurements of mountain permafrost in the
Daisetsu Mountains, Hokkaido, Japan: the state of the art
Go Iwahana 1 , Yuki Sawada 2 , Mamoru Ishikawa 3 , Toshio Sone 4 , Koichiro Harada 5
(1. Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan;
2. Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan;
3. Institute of Observational Research for Global Change, JAMSTEC, Yokosuka, Japan;
4. Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan;
5. Miyagi University, Sendai, Japan)
Abstract: Mountain permafrost is distributed in a complex manner over a large area of the
upper approximately 1700m of the Daisetsu Mountains (43°N, 142°E). Numerous periglacial
landforms were identified in the 1960’s suggesting the occurrence of perennially cryotic ground
in this area. In recent years, basic meteorological measurements and geophysical surveys of
mountain permafrost have been performed in this range. However, information is still
insufficient to discuss environmental controls of the occurrence and temporal variation of the
mountain permafrost. This paper summarizes the history of the micrometeorological study of
mountain permafrost in the Daisetsu Mountain. Second, it presents a micrometeorological
station, where a 4m tower with micrometeorological measuring instruments was newly installed
at a representative point of the mountain permafrost zone (2038m a.s.l.) in July 2005.
Preliminary results show that consecutive northwesterly winds prevent snow accumulation in
the mountain permafrost site and enhance the energy exchange between ground and atmosphere.
Summer precipitation easily penetrates through the highly permeable active layer and
significantly affects the thermal regime of the layer.
Key words: Mountain permafrost, Micrometeorology, Active layer, Daisetsu Mountains
Mountain permafrost distribution and ground temperatures in Iceland
and northern Norway
H. Farbrot 1 , B. Etzelmüller 1 , Á. Guðmundsson 2 , O. Humlum 1 , K. Isaksen 3 , L. Sørbel 1
(1.Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Norway; 2.Jarðfræðistofan Geological Services,
Reykjavik, Iceland; 3.Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Oslo, Norway)
Abstract: Permafrost in high-mountain environments is extremely heterogeneous, and its
distribution depends on topo-climatic factors in addition to snow and vegetation cover. Iceland
is governed by an oceanic climate type with low annual range of temperature (generally below
11°C along the coast), mean annual air temperature (MAAT) of 3-4°C along the coast, high
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