Reginald R Muskett and Vladimir E Romanovsky 2009 Environ. Res. Lett. 4 045009 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/4/4/045009
Reginald R Muskett and Vladimir E Romanovsky
Show affiliationsPart of Climatic and Environmental Change in Northern Eurasia
The Arctic permafrost regions make up the largest area component of the cryosphere. Observations from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission offer to provide a greater understanding of changes in water mass within permafrost regions. We investigate a GRACE monthly time series, snow water equivalent from the special scanning microwave imager (SSM/I), vegetation water content and soil moisture from the advanced microwave scanning radiometer for the Earth observation system (AMSR-E) and in situ discharge of the Lena, Yenisei, Ob', and Mackenzie watersheds. The GRACE water equivalent mass change responded to mass loading by snow accumulation in winter and mass unloading by runoff in spring–summer. Comparison of secular trends from GRACE to runoff suggests groundwater storage increased in the Lena and Yenisei watersheds, decreased in the Mackenzie watershed, and was unchanged in the Ob' watershed. We hypothesize that the groundwater storage changes are linked to the development of closed- and open-talik in the continuous permafrost zone and the decrease of permafrost lateral extent in the discontinuous permafrost zone of the watersheds.
Issue 4 (October-December 2009)
Received 7 April 2009, accepted for publication 3 August 2009
Published 15 October 2009
Reginald R Muskett and Vladimir E Romanovsky 2009 Environ. Res. Lett. 4 045009
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