Our new scientific mobile app for permafrost monitoring, called myThaw, is based on the standardized measurement protocol and developed by the Permafrost Thaw Action Group as part of the T-MOSAiC project.
The myThaw app is used to monitor permafrost thaw. It guides the user through the observation process, ensures that the observations are consistent and well documented, and transfers the observations to an accessible T-MOSAiC database. Our myThaw app is user-friendly and designed with big buttons so you can operate it even in cold conditions with gloves.
The protocol requests basic information about the site location, including latitude, longitude, elevation, and the location of the nearest weather station. This information is crucial for both mapping and modelling, and therefore adds greatly to the usability of the data collected.
We then request an overview of the site characteristics as seen by eye, including whether the site is rocky, what type of soils are there, and how wet it is. For example, it may be a very wet or dry site, or it may be mixed, and these overview assessments, while providing similar information to the spheres themselves, will give an overview of the site as a whole. This also provides further information regarding how representative the transect measurements are. While vegetation height is covered in its own sphere, the dominant type of vegetation merits inclusion as metadata because it is a key indicator of the type of site. Basic information about any water features, such as ponds and rivers, as well as natural and anthropogenic disturbances are recorded because these will also affect the site, impacting the hydrology and permafrost thaw.
Photos are required in the four cardinal directions in a standardized manner that provides a sense of scale, to give an overview of the site and clarify descriptions as shown in the figure below. An additional photo shows the placement of the transect.
To set up the T-MOSAiC transect in winter and do the snow depth measurements:
To set up the T-MOSAiC transect and do the permafrost thaw depth, vegetation height, water level and soil measurements:
The video shows how to measure vegetation using the protocol and the MyThaw app. The video was taken in July 2023 at the Bayelva T-MOSAiC site close to Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen.
We released the mobile app myThaw for smartphones, tablets and personal computers.
You can use myThaw to collect the data in any permafrost region around the world.
