title: InSAR analysis of surface deformation over permafrost to estimate active layer thickness based on one-dimensional heat transfer model of soils.
abstract: This paper presents a novel method to estimate active layer thickness (ALT) over permafrost based on InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) observation and the heat transfer model of soils. The time lags between the periodic feature of InSAR-observed surface deformation over permafrost and the meteorologically recorded temperatures are assumed to be the time intervals that the temperature maximum to diffuse from the ground surface downward to the bottom of the active layer. By exploiting the time lags and the one-dimensional heat transfer model of soils, we estimate the ALTs. Using the frozen soil region in southern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) as examples, we provided a conceptual demonstration of the estimation of the InSAR pixel-wise ALTs. In the case study, the ALTs are ranging from 1.02 to 3.14 m and with an average of 1.95 m. The results are compatible with those sparse ALT observations/estimations by traditional methods, while with extraordinary high spatial resolution at pixel level (~40 meter). The presented method is simple, and can potentially be used for deriving high-resolution ALTs in other remote areas similar to QTP, where only sparse observations are available now.
authors.affiliation: School of Geosciences and Info-Physics, Central South University, Changsha 410083, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Zhiwei
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Geosciences and Info-Physics, Central South University, Changsha 410083, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: School of Geosciences and Info-Physics, Central South University, Changsha 410083, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Geosciences, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.|Laboratory of Seismology and Physics of Earth's Interior, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Lianxing
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: School of Geosciences and Info-Physics, Central South University, Changsha 410083, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Guangcai
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: School of Geosciences and Info-Physics, Central South University, Changsha 410083, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Zeyu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Geosciences and Info-Physics, Central South University, Changsha 410083, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Qijie
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang