Publications

Click on the following links for publications relating to the Permafrost project.

2025

Frost GV, Bhatt US, Macander MJ, Berner LT, Walker DA, Raynolds MK, Magnússon RÍ, Bartsch A, Bjerke JW, Epstein HE, Forbes BC, Goetz SJ, Hoy EE, Karlsen SR, Kumpula T, Lantz TC, Lara MJ, López-Blanco E, Montesano PM, Neigh CSR, Nitze I, Orndahl KM, Park T, Phoenix GK, Rocha AV, Rogers BM, Schaepman-Strub G, Tømmervik H, Verdonen M, Veremeeva A, Virkkala A-M and Waigl CF (2025) The changing face of the Arctic: four decades of greening and implications for tundra ecosystems. Front. Environ. Sci. 13:1525574. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2025.1525574.

Loriani, S., Bartsch, A., Calamita, E., Donges, J. F., Hebden, S., Hirota, M., Landolfi, A., Nagler, T., Sakschewski, B., Staal, A., Verbesselt, J., Winkelmann, R., Wood, R., Wunderling, N.: Monitoring the Multiple Stages of Climate Tipping Systems from Space: Do the GCOS Essential Climate Variables Meet the Needs? Surveys in Geophysics, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-024-09866-4.

Hu, Y., Arenson, L. U., Barboux, C., Bodin, X., Cicoira, A., Delaloye, R., Gärtner-Roer, I., Kääb, A., Kellerer-Pirklbauer, A., Lambiel, C., Liu, L., Pellet, C., Rouyet, L., Schoeneich, P., Seier, G., Strozzi, T.: Rock glacier velocity: An essential climate variable quantity for permafrost. Reviews of Geophysics, 63, e2024RG000847, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024RG000847.

Bartsch, A., Muri, X., Hetzenecker, M., Rautiainen, K., Bergstedt, H., Wuite, J., Nagler, T., and Nicolsky, D.: Benchmarking passive microwave satellite derived freeze/thaw datasets, The Cryosphere, 19, 459–483, 2025. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-459-2025.

Rouyet, L., Bolch, T., Brardinoni, F., Caduff, R., Cusicanqui, D., Darrow, M., Delaloye, R., Echelard, T., Lambiel, C., Ruiz, L., Schmid, L., Sirbu, F., and Strozzi, T.: Rock Glacier Inventories (RoGI) in 12 areas worldwide using a multi-operator consensus-based procedure, Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss. [preprint], in review, 2025. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-598.

Onaca, A., Sirbu, F., Poncos, V., Hilbich, C., Strozzi, T., Urdea, P., Popescu, R., Berzescu, O., Etzelmüller, B., Vespremeanu-Stroe, A., Vasile, M., Teleagă, D., Birtaș, D., Lopătiță, I., Filhol, S., Hegyi, A., and Ardelean, F.: Slow-moving rock glaciers in marginal periglacial environment of Southern Carpathians, EGUsphere [preprint], in review, 2025. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3262.

Streletskiy, D.A., Maslakov, A., Grosse, G., Shiklomanov, N., Farquharson, L.M., Zwieback, S., Iwahana, G., Bartsch, A., Liu, L., Strozzi, T., Lee, H., Debolskiy, M. V.: Thawing permafrost is subsiding in the Northern Hemisphere - review and perspectives. Environmental Research Letters, Volume 20, Number 1, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ada2ff.

2024

Wendt, L., Rouyet, L., Christiansen, H. H., Lauknes, T. R., and Westermann, S.: InSAR sensitivity to active layer ground ice content in Adventdalen, Svalbard, EGUsphere [preprint], 2024. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2972.

Widhalm, B., Bartsch, A., Strozzi, T., Jones, N., Khomutov, A., Babkina, E., Leibman, M., Khairullin, R., Göckede, M., Bergstedt, H., von Baeckmann, C., and Muri, X.: InSAR-derived seasonal subsidence rates reflect spatial soil moisture patterns in Arctic lowland permafrost regions, EGUsphere [preprint], 2024. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2356.

Tanguy, R., Bartsch, A., Nitze, I., Irrgang, A., Petzold, P., Widhalm, B., von Baeckmann, C., Boike, J., Martin, J., Efimova, A., Vieira, G., Whalen, D., Heim, B., Wieszorek, M., Grosse, G.: Pan‐Arctic Assessment of Coastal Settlements and Infrastructure Vulnerable to Coastal Erosion, Sea‐Level Rise, and Permafrost Thaw, Earth’s Future, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EF005013.

Burn, C., Bartsch, A., Chakraborty, E., Das, S., Frauenfelder, R., Gärtner-Roer, I., Gisnås, K., Herring, T., Jones, B., Kokelj, S., Langer, M., Lathrop, E., Murton, J., Nielsen, D., Niu, F., Olson, C., O'Neill, H. ., Opfergelt, S., Overduin, P., Schaefer, K., Schuur, E. ., Skierszkan, E., Smith, S., Stuenzi, S., Tank, S., van der Sluijs, J., Vieira, G., Westermann, S., Wolfe, S. and Yarmak, E.: Developments in Permafrost Science and Engineering in Response to Climate Warming in Circumpolar and High Mountain Regions, 2019–2024. Permafrost and Periglac Process, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp.2261.

von Baeckmann, C., Bartsch, A., Bergstedt, H., Efimova, A., Widhalm, B., Ehrich, D., Kumpula, T., Sokolov, A., and Abdulmanova, S.: Land cover succession for recently drained lakes in permafrost on the Yamal Peninsula, Western Siberia, The Cryosphere, 18, 4703–4722, 2024. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-4703-2024.

Schickhoff, M., de Vrese, P., Bartsch, A., Widhalm, B. and Brovkin, V.: Effects of land surface model resolution on fluxes and soil state in the Arctic, Environ. Res. Lett. 19 104032, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad6019.

Ishikawa, M., Westermann, S., Jambaljav, Y., Dashtseren, A., Hiyama, T., Endo, N., & Etzelmüller, B. (2024), Transient Modeling of Permafrost Distribution From 1986 to 2016 in Mongolia. Permafrost and Periglac Process, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp.2231.

Zwieback, S., Liu, L., Rouyet, L., Short, N. and Strozzi, T., Advances in InSAR Analysis of Permafrost Terrain. Permafrost and Periglac Process, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp.2248.

Kääb, A., Røste, J. Rock glaciers across the United States predominantly accelerate coincident with rise in air temperatures. Nat Commun 15, 7581, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52093-z.

Sasgen, I., Steinhoefel, G., Kasprzyk, C., Matthes, H., Westermann, S., Boike, J., Grosse, G.: Atmosphere circulation patterns synchronize pan-Arctic glacier melt and permafrost thaw, Commun Earth Environ, 5, 375, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01548-8.

Bartsch, A., Efimova, A., Widhalm, B., Muri, X., von Baeckmann, C., Bergstedt, H., Ermokhina, K., Hugelius, G., Heim, B., and Leibman, M.: Circumarctic land cover diversity considering wetness gradients, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 2421–2481, 2024. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2421-2024.

Nitzbon, J., Schneider von Deimling, T., Aliyeva, M., Chadburn, S., Grosse, G., Laboor, S., Lee, H., Lohmann, G., Steinert, N., Stuenzi, S., Werner, M., Westermann, S., and Langer M.: No respite from permafrost-thaw impacts in the absence of a global tipping point, Nat. Clim. Chang, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-02011-4.

Lenton, T.M., Abrams, J.F., Bartsch, A. et al.: Remotely sensing potential climate change tipping points across scales. Nature Communications, 15, 343, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44609-w.

2023

Westermann, S., Ingeman-Nielsen, T., Scheer, J., Aalstad, K., Aga, J., Chaudhary, N., Etzelmüller, B., Filhol, S., Kääb, A., Renette, C., Schmidt, L. S., Schuler, T. V., Zweigel, R. B., Martin, L., Morard, S., Ben-Asher, M., Angelopoulos, M., Boike, J., Groenke, B., Miesner, F., Nitzbon, J., Overduin, P., Stuenzi, S. M., and Langer, M.: The CryoGrid community model (version 1.0) – a multi-physics toolbox for climate-driven simulations in the terrestrial cryosphere, Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 2607–2647, 2023.. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-2607-2023.

Aga, J., Boike, J., Langer, M., Ingeman-Nielsen, T., and Westermann, S.: Simulating ice segregation and thaw consolidation in permafrost environments with the CryoGrid community model, The Cryosphere, 17, 4179–4206, 2023. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4179-2023.

Renette, C., Aalstad, K., Aga, J., Zweigel, R. B., Etzelmüller, B., Lilleøren, K. S., Isaksen, K., and Westermann, S.: Simulating the effect of subsurface drainage on the thermal regime and ground ice in blocky terrain in Norway, Earth Surf. Dynam., 11, 33–50, 2023.. https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-11-33-2023.

Langer, M., von Deimling, T.S., Westermann, S., Rolph, R., Rutte, R., Antonova, S., Rachold, V., Schultz, M., Oehme A., Grosse G. Thawing permafrost poses environmental threat to thousands of sites with legacy industrial contamination. Nat Commun 14, 1721 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37276-4.

Lambiel, C., Strozzi, T., Paillex, N., Vivero, S. and Jones, N.: Inventory and kinematics of active and transitional rock glaciers in the Southern Alps of New Zealand from Sentinel-1 InSAR, Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 55:1, 2183999, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1080/15230430.2023.2183999.

Bartsch, A., Strozzi, T., and Nitze, I.: Permafrost Monitoring from Space, Surveys in Geophysics, 2023. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10712-023-09770-3.

Bartsch, A., Bergstedt, H., Pointner, G., Muri, X., Rautiainen, K., Leppänen, L., Joly, K., Sokolov, A., Orekhov, P., Ehrich, D., and Soininen, E. M.: Towards long-term records of rain-on-snow events across the Arctic from satellite data, The Cryosphere, 17, 889–915, 2023. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-889-2023.

2022

Lilleøren, K. S., Etzelmüller, B., Rouyet, L., Eiken, T., Slinde, G., and Hilbich, C.: Transitional rock glaciers at sea level in northern Norway, Earth Surf. Dynam., 10, 975–996, 2022. https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-975-2022.

Bertone, A., Barboux, C., Bodin, X., Bolch, T., Brardinoni, F., Caduff, R., Christiansen, H. H., Darrow, M., Delaloye, R., Etzelmüller, B., Humlum, O., Lambiel, C., Lilleøren, K. S., Mair, V., Pellegrinon, G., Rouyet, L., Ruiz, L., and Strozzi, T (2022).: Incorporating InSAR kinematics into rock glacier inventories: insights from 11 regions worldwide , The Cryosphere, 16, 2769–2792, 2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2769-2022.

Miner, K., Turestky, M., Malina, E., Bartsch, A., Tamminen, J., McGuire, A.D., Fix, A., Sweeney, C., Elder, C.D., and Miller, C.E. (2022): Permafrost carbon emissions in a changing Arctic, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 3, 55–67. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-021-00230-3.

2021

Rouyet, L., Lilleøren, K.S., Böhme, M., Vick, L.M., Delaloye, R., Etzelmüller, B., Lauknes, T.R., Larsen, Y., and Blikra, L.H. (2021): Regional Morpho-Kinematic Inventory of Slope Movements in Northern Norway, Front. Earth Sci. 9:6810881, https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.681088.

Bartsch, A., Pointner, G., Nitze, I., Efimova, A., Jakober, D., Ley, S., Högström, E., Grosse, G., and Schweitzer, P. (2021): Expanding infrastructure and growing anthropogenic impacts along Arctic coasts, Environmental Research Letters, Volume 16, Number 11, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3176.

Nitze, I, Heidler, K., Barth, S., and Grosse, G. (2021): Developing and testing a deep learning approach for mapping retrogressive thaw slumps. Remote Sensing, 13(21), 4294, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13214294.

A. Bartsch, G. Pointner, H. Bergstedt, B. Widhalm, A. Wendleder and A. Roth (2021) : Utility of Polarizations Available from Sentinel-1 for Tundra Mapping, IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium IGARSS, 2021, pp. 1452-1455, https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS47720.2021.9553993.

Rouyet, L., Liu, L., Strand, S.M., Christiansen, H.H., Lauknes, T.R., Larsen, Y. (2021): Seasonal InSAR Displacements Documenting the Active Layer Freeze and Thaw Progression in Central-Western Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Remote Sensing, 13(15), 2977, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13152977.

Martin, L. C. P., Nitzbon, J., Scheer, J., Aas, K.S., Eiken, T., Langer, M., Filhol, S., Etzelmüller, B. and Westermann, S. (2021), Lateral thermokarst patterns in permafrost peat plateaus in northern Norway, The Cryosphere, 15, 3423–3442, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3423-2021.

Obu, J. (2021): How much of the Earth’s surface is underlain by permafrost?, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 126, e2021JF006123, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JF006123.

Kääb, A., Strozzi, T., Bolch, T., Caduff, R., Trefall, H., Stoffel, M., and Kokarev, A. (2021): Inventory, motion and acceleration of rock glaciers in Ile Alatau and Kungöy Ala-Too, northern Tien Shan, since the 1950s, The Cryosphere, 15, 927–949, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-927-2021.

A. Veremeeva, I. Nitze, F. Günther, G. Grosse and E. Rivkina (2021) : Geomorphological and Climatic Drivers of Thermokarst Lake Area Increase Trend (1999–2018) in the Kolyma Lowland Yedoma Region, North-Eastern Siberia, Remote Sensing, 13(2), 178, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13020178.

2020

B.M. Jones, A.M. Irrgang, L.M. Farquharson, H. Lantuit, D. Whalen, S. Ogorodov, M. Grigoriev, C. Tweedie, A.E. Gibbs, M.C. Strzelecki, A. Baranskaya, N. Belova, A. Sinitsyn, A. Kroon, A. Maslakov, G. Vieira, G. Grosse, P. Overduin, I. Nitze, C. Maio, J. Overbeck, M. Bendixen, P. Zagórski and V.E. Romanovsky (2020) : Coastal Permafrost Erosion, NOAA Arctic Report Card, https://doi.org/10.25923/e47w-dw52.

Nitze, I., Cooley, S. W., Duguay, C. R., Jones, B. M., and Grosse, G. (2020): The catastrophic thermokarst lake drainage events of 2018 in northwestern Alaska: fast-forward into the future, The Cryosphere, 14, 4279–4297, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4279-2020.

Burke, E.J., Zhang, Y., Krinner, G. (2020): Evaluating permafrost physics in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6 (CMIP6) models and their sensitivity to climate change, The Cryosphere, 14, 3155–3174, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3155-2020.

Swingedouw, D., Speranza, C., Bartsch, A., Durand, G., Jamet, C., Beaugrand, G., Conversi, A. (2020): Early Warning from Space for a Few Key Tipping Points in Physical, Biological, and Social-Ecological Systems. Surveys in Geophysics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-020-09604-6

Lissak, C., Bartsch, A., De Michele, M. et al. Remote Sensing for Assessing Landslides and Associated Hazards. Surv Geophys (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-020-09609-1

Bartsch A, Ley S, Nitze I, Pointner G and Vieira G (2020), Feasibility Study for the Application of Synthetic Aperture Radar for Coastal Erosion Rate Quantification Across the Arctic. Front. Environ. Sci. 8:143. doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2020.00143. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2020.00143/full

T. Popp, M.I. Hegglin, R. Hollmann, F. Ardhuin, A. Bartsch, A. Bastos, V. Bennett, J. Boutin, C. Brockmann, M. Buchwitz, E. Chuvieco, P. Ciais, W. Dorigo, D. Ghent, R. Jones, T. Lavergne, C.J. Merchant, B.Meyssignac, F. Paul, S. Quegan, S. Sathyendranath, T. Scanlon, M. Schröder, S.G.H. Simis, U. Willén (2020): Consistency of satellite climate data records for Earth system monitoring. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 1–68, doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-19-0127.1.

Bergstedt, H., Bartsch, A., Duguay, C., Jones, B. (2020): Influence of surface water on coarse resolution C-band backscatter: Implications for freeze/thaw retrieval from scatterometer data. Remote Sensing of Environment, Volume 247, 15 September 2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2020.111911.

Bergstedt H., A. Bartsch, A. Neureiter, A. Höfler, B. Widhalm, N. Pepin and J. Hjort (2020): Deriving a Frozen Area Fraction From Metop ASCAT Backscatter Based on Sentinel-1, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 58, no. 9, pp. 6008-6019, https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2020.2967364.

Strozzi T., R.Caduff, N. Jones, C. Barboux, R, Delaloye, X. Bodin, A. Kääb, E. Mätzler, L. Schrott (2020): Monitoring Rock Glacier Kinematics with Synthetic Aperture Radar. Remote Sensing, 12(3), 559.

Obu J., S. Westermann, G. Vieira, A. Abramov, M.R. Balks, A. Bartsch, F. Hrbáček, A. Kääb, M. Ramos (2020): Pan-Antarctic map of near-surface permafrost temperatures at 1 km2 scale. The Cryosphere, 14, 497-519.

Bartsch A., B. Widhalm, M. Leibman, K. Ermokhina, T. Kumpula, A. Skarin, E.J. Wilcox, B.M. Jones, G. V. Frost, A. Höfler, G. Pointner (2020) Feasibility of tundra vegetation height retrieval from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 237, 111515.

2019

Turetsky MR, Abbott BW, Jones MC, Walter Anthony K, Olefeldt D, Schuur EAG, Koven C, McGuire AD, Grosse G, Kuhry P, Hugelius G, Lawrence DM, Gibson C, Sannel ABK (2019): Permafrost collapse is accelerating carbon release. Nature, 569, 32-34. doi: 10.1038/d41586-019-01313-4.

L. Rouyet, T. R. Lauknes, H. H. Christiansen, S. M. Strand and Y. Larsen (2019): Seasonal dynamics of a permafrost landscape, Adventdalen, Svalbard, investigated by InSAR. Remote Sensing of Environment, Volume 231, 15 September 2019, 111236.

J. Obu, S. Westermann, A. Bartsch, N. Berdnikov, H.H. Christiansen, A. Dashtseren, R. Delaloye, B. Elberling, B. Etzelmüller, A. Kholodov, A. Khomutov, A. Kääb, M.O. Leibman, A.G. Lewkowicz, S.K. Panda, V. Romanovsky, R.G. Way, A. Westergaard-Nielsen, T. Wu, J. Yamkhin, D. Zou (2019). Northern Hemisphere permafrost map based on TTOP modelling for 2000-2016 at 1 km2 scale. Earth-Science Reviews, Volume 193, Pages 299-316.

2017

A. Trofaier, S. Westermann & A. Bartsch (2017). Progress in space-borne studies of permafrost for climate science: Towards a multi-ECV approach. Remote Sensing of Environment, Volume 203, Pages 55-70.