Quoted from: A process-based model for quantifying the impact of climate change on permafrost thermal regimes. DOI: 10.1029/2002JD003354

Quoted from: C. Ou et al., "Model calibration for mapping permafrost using Landsat-5 TM and RADARSAT-2 images," 2014 IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Quebec City, QC, 2014, pp. 4883-4886, doi: 10.1109/IGARSS.2014.6947589. 

Permafrost is an important ground condition in high latitudes. Climate warming in this region was about twice the rate of the global average during the 20th century and the trend will continue in the 21st century [1]. Such warming may lead to thickening of active layer, reducing permafrost thickness and extent, melting ground ice, causing ground subsidence and thermokarst erosions. Such changes could have significant impacts on terrain stability, infrastructure, hydrology, ecosystems, wildlife habitats, greenhouse gas fluxes and feedbacks to the climate system [1] [2]. Permafrost has been modelled and mapped with half-degree latitude/longitude or coarser spatial resolution at regional or hemispherical scales [3] [4]. In order to better map the distribution and dynamics of permafrost, there is a need to develop and test permafrost models that can be used with high spatial resolution remote sensing data. The Northern Ecosystem Soil Temperature (NEST) model is a one-dimensional permafrost model that considers the effects of climate, vegetation, snow and different ground layers [5]. It has been used to map permafrost at high spatial resolutions for two national parks in Canada [6] [7]. Permafrost in these two parks are thick and near continuous. It is not clear if the model can be used to map permafrost in warmer and discontinuous permafrost regions, where permafrost is expected to be more sensitive to climate change than in colder regions.