Livingston Island
The study area is the Mount Reina Sofia in Hurd Peninsula (Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands). Livingston Island shows a polar maritime climate with frequent precipitation that frequently falls as rain in the summer (annual precipitation = 414 mm), the relative humidity throughout the year is close to saturation especially in the summer (mean annual = 83%), with a MAAT of 1.2 C at sea-level. The study area has witnessed a marked rise in MAAT over the past 70 years and is one of the global hot spots of climate warming. Mount Reina Sofia is a rocky peak carved in the Myers Blu Formation, dominated by quartzite and shales, and with a surficial frost shattered diamicton showing the development of stone circles.
An automatic ERT (A-ERT) monitoring system using a 4POINTLIGHT_10W (Lippmann) instrument, was installed in the vicinity of the ground temperature borehole PG1 in order to monitor active layer freezing and thawing by ground surface time-lapse surveys. The PG1 was drilled in the flat summit area, which is mostly snow free in the summer and has only a limited accumulation in winter due to the strong winds. Due to the rocky nature of the environment, no attempt has been made to measure the active layer thickness in this area.
The Lippmann resistivity meter was programmed in combination with multi-electrodes for ERT surveys and measurements were performed using the Wenner electrode configuration to minimize energy consumption and measurement time as well as to obtain the best signal-to-noise ratio in highly resistive terrain. We used 26 copper plates for a better ground contact, with an electrode spacing of 0.5 m and measurements were repeated in 6h intervals since January 2020. A robust, water-proof box (explorer cases 5833B was used and buried, casing the 4POINTLIGHT_10W instrument, solar panel-driven battery and multi-electrodes connectors during data acquisition. This setup yields 100 individual data points for each monitoring data set at eight data levels. A timer was used in this station to optimize the energy consumption by turning on the system at each six hours for ERT measurements.
An automatic ERT (A-ERT) monitoring system using a 4POINTLIGHT_10W (Lippmann) instrument, was installed in the vicinity of the ground temperature borehole PG1 in order to monitor active layer freezing and thawing by ground surface time-lapse surveys. The PG1 was drilled in the flat summit area, which is mostly snow free in the summer and has only a limited accumulation in winter due to the strong winds. Due to the rocky nature of the environment, no attempt has been made to measure the active layer thickness in this area.
The Lippmann resistivity meter was programmed in combination with multi-electrodes for ERT surveys and measurements were performed using the Wenner electrode configuration to minimize energy consumption and measurement time as well as to obtain the best signal-to-noise ratio in highly resistive terrain. We used 26 copper plates for a better ground contact, with an electrode spacing of 0.5 m and measurements were repeated in 6h intervals since January 2020. A robust, water-proof box (explorer cases 5833B was used and buried, casing the 4POINTLIGHT_10W instrument, solar panel-driven battery and multi-electrodes connectors during data acquisition. This setup yields 100 individual data points for each monitoring data set at eight data levels. A timer was used in this station to optimize the energy consumption by turning on the system at each six hours for ERT measurements.