Home – Home – Jornals – Chemistry for Sustainable Development 2023 number 2

The issues of climate warming and permafrost thawing are considered. A procedure for assessing the Arctic landscapes thawing based on the calculation of the normalized differential snow index (NDSI) is proposed. The factual material over the data of the global permafrost monitoring network is presented. Monitoring studies have shown that according to the results of NDSI calculation, abnormally early snowmelt was detected in 5 cases out of 23 years of observation at the Urengoy meteorological station and in 4 cases out of 23 years at the Tarko-Sale meteorological station. The absence of snow was observed during the indicated period in 13 cases at the technogenic sites of the Urengoy field, and in 8 cases at the Tarko-Sale field. With early snowmelt, the snow index NDSI decreases, and the depth of the seasonally thawed layer increases at the sites of the Urengoy field. The NDSI index can be used directly in assessing the duration of snow cover and early snowmelt, and indirectly in studying the depth of seasonally thawed layer. The results obtained are important for predictive estimates of the rate and extent of thawing and permafrost deformation, and for the prevention of emergency situations in the oil and gas complex.