Tundra Travel Model in the Arctic Foothills and Coastal Plain; Polar Security Studies UAF

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Polar Security Program just assumed long term monitoring from the Alaska state Department of Natural Resources for the Tundra Travel Model in the Arctic Foothills and Coastal Plain. This project represents the first and only controlled, standardized field experiment (within the tradition of Karl Popper) for the impact of overland seismic exploration vehicles under varying conditions of snow depth, snow density, surface crust, ground temperature, soil type, and vegetation type. The program was instituted in 2003 and the latest measurements were completed again in 2012. The measurements recorded in this long term study include:

Depth of Active Layer
Soil Temperature at 15 cm depth
Soil Moisture at 15 cm depth
Soil Salinity at 15 cm depth
Surface Micro-topography Survey
Photosynthetically Active Radiation
Tussock Disturbance
Ground Disturbance
Shrub Disturbance
Vegetative Cover and Type

The vehicles that were tested on the prescribed course were: Tucker, Dozer, Challenger, and Loader

Data and Resources

ReportPDF
Project Report
Explore
- More information
- Go to resource

Additional Info

Field	Value
ISO Topics	environment, geoscientificInformation, structure, transportation
Primary Contact	Harry Bader (hrbader@alaska.edu)
Primary Organization	University of Alaska Fairbanks
Organization Types	Academic
Geo-keywords	North Slope
Start Date	2003-01-01
Created	February 23, 2016, 01:34 (AKST)
Last Updated	July 1, 2021, 20:26 (AKDT)