Classroom organization Permafrost covers nearly 85% of Alaska. A warming climate brought higher temperatures which may cause some permafrost to thaw. This can lead to geologic hazards such as landslides, ground subsidence, erosion and other severe surface distortions.
In this lab, we will use the Kudryavtsev (Ku) model to calculate the active layer thickness for a study area in Alaska. Active layer is the top layer of the permafrost where the annual maximum temperature reaches 0°C and the temperature shift over diurnal and seasonal cycles. Then we will use the active layer thickness as the input of the Landlab component (DepthDependentDiffuser) to simulate the hillslope diffusion process. The ERA5 and Topography Data Components are used to prepare the inputs for the Ku model.
Learning objectives Skills
Learn to use Data Components to download research datasets
Learn to couple Data and Model Components for simulation
Key concepts
Landlab
Pymt
CSDMS Data Component
Lab notes This lab can be run on the lab (for educators) and jupyter (for general use) instances of the OpenEarthscape JupyterHub: just click one of the links under the Run online using heading at the top of this page, then run the notebook in the "CSDMS" kernel.
Acknowledgements This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under collaborative grants 1831623, 2026951, 2140831, 2104102, and 2148762.