Identification and Mapping of Permafrost Using Satellite Images (on the Example of the Elkon Mountain in Southern Yakutia)

Abstract

A technique for identification of permafrost and taliks with use of satellite data is offered and also possibilities of mapping of their distribution in a zone of discontinuous permafrost in mountainous areas of South Yakutia, on the example of the Elkon mountain are shown in the article. The results of the correlation analysis of satellite data with field full-scale materials are presented. The method of unsupervised classification for differentiating vegetation and snow cover types from multispectral imagery is used in the ArcGis10.1 program. For the first time, the indicator properties of the radiation temperature (thermal infrared radiation from the landscape surface) received by means of the Landsat infrared survey in channel 6 for the detection and regional mapping of permafrost are described in more detail. Algorithms for recognizing permafrost and taliks for each exposure are compiled, representing a complex indication scheme for such components as height, slope and surface exposure, vegetation and snow cover, and surface radiation temperature. Using the above methods of interpreting of satellite images along with traditional methods, allowed to reveal complex criteria for mapping permafrost and taliks and to make the permafrost landscape map (fragment) of the Elkon mountain.