In peatlands in Finnmark, Northern Norway, palsas and peat plateaus are special landforms that indicate the patchy occurrence of permafrost. They consist of elevated mounds or plateaus with an ice core which is visible in high-resolution aerial imagery. In the course of permafrost degradation due to climate change, the ice core can melt, leading to a collapse of the palsa and in some cases the formation of a pond.
In the last years, we have instrumented permafrost mires with several hundred temperature sensors at the ground surface. The master project offers research opportunities in various directions. You can perform statistical analysis on the environmental factors governing the ground thermal regime and the occurrence of permafrost. You can also compile and analyze digital elevation models and orthophotos from aerial images acquired with the UiO drone for selected mires.
Furthermore, you can perform numerical simulations of ground temperatures with the thermal model CryoGrid written in Matlab (see also thesis “Numerical simulations of permafrost processes with CryoGrid”).
Participation in fieldwork in N Norway is possible for this thesis, as well as GIS and intermediate Matlab skills.