Cryodata: Publicly available data

This website provides a portal to freely available data generated by or in collaboration with the Glaciology, Geomorphodynamics & Geochronology group at the Department of Geography, University of Zurich.

Global Permafrost Zonation Index Map

The Global Permafrost Zonation Index Map has a resolution of 30 arc-seconds (about 1km) and is available for all land areas except for Antarctica. It is avaialbe digitally for Google Earth, as a Web Mapping Service and, as raw data.

Citation: Gruber, S. 2012: Derivation and analysis of a high-resolution estimate of global permafrost zonation, The Cryosphere, 6, 221-233. doi:10.5194/tc-6-221-2012.

[Details and online data] [Publication]

Alpine Permafrost Index Map

The Alpine Permafrost Index Map is publicly available and shows an index of the estimated likelihood of permafrost occurrence for the entire Alps. The legend and the interpretation key provide further information and allow the map user to refine the interpretation of the color code shown on the map using more detailed information of the terrain considered. The map is intended for practitioners such as public outhorities or individuals involved in the construction and maintenance of infrastructure in mountain areas.

Citation: Boeckli, L., Brenning, A., Gruber, S. & Noetzli J. (2012): Permafrost distribution in the European Alps: calculation and evaluation of an index map and summary statistics, The Cryosphere, 6, 807–820, doi:10.5194/tc-6-807-2012.

[Details and online data] [Publication] [PermaNET]

Inventory of permafrost evidence for the European Alps

As a basis for the permafrost model covering the entire Alps, evidence of the presence or absence of permafrost from many countries and institutions has been standardized and inventoried within the project PermaNET. This inventory only has a few variables to allow researchers to easily insert their data into the database. It contains evidence based on borehole temperature, ground surface temperature, rock-fall scars, trenches or construction sites, surface movement, geophysical prospecting and rock glaciers. The rock glacier inventory is managed separately from the point types of evidence: individual rock glacier inventories are supplied as a collection of polygons that are merged into one rock glacier inventory. The development of the inventory was a collaborative effort of the ARPA Valle d’Aosta, Aosta (Italy), the University of Zurich, Switzerland and the WSL Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF. Besides the PermaNET team, thirty-five individuals and institutions provided valuable data. Contributors provided information from their own research areas, consisting of existing data and knowledge adapted to the common data format used in this inventory. This was complemented by specific investigations in collaboration with regional/local geological services, ski resort operators, engineering companies and alpine guide societies.

Citation: E. Cremonese, S. Gruber, M. Phillips, P. Pogliotti, L. Boeckli, J. Noetzli, C. Suter, X. Bodin, A. Crepaz, A. Kellerer-Pirklbauer, K. Lang, S. Letey, V. Mair, U. Morra di Cella, L. Ravanel, C. Scapozza, R. Seppi, & A. Zischg (2011) Brief Communication: An inventory of permafrost evidence for the European Alps, The Cryosphere, 5, 651-657.

[Inventory] [Publication] [PermaNET]

Distributed temperature measurements with iButton-footprints

Citation: Gubler, S., Fiddes, J., Gruber, S. & Keller, M. (2011): Measuring and analysis of scale dependent variability of ground surface temperatures in alpine terrain, The Cryosphere, 5, 431-443, doi:10.5194/tc-5-431-2011. [Publication and data as suppelent]

Schmid, M.-O., Gubler, S., Fiddes, J. & Gruber, S. (2012): Inferring snow pack ripening and melt out from distributed ground surface temperature measurementsThe Cryosphere Discussions, 6, 563-591, doi:10.5194/tc-5-431-2011. [Publication and data as suppelent]

Other data

The PermaSense consortium operates a website with online data from vaious Alpine wireless sensor network deployments.

The Swiss Permafrost Monitoring System PERMOS collects, archives and disemminates permafrost monitoring data in Switzerland.