World Permafrost, 1996 is a polyline theme representing permafrost areas worldwide.
Purpose
For educational, non-commercial purposes. This dataset is appropriate for use in a GIS.
Supplemental Information
Water that freezes in the ground is found in zones of stable cooling of the earth where the cryosphere penetrates into the lithosphere. Ground ice typically develops in close and complex relationship with the ground that contains it. Permafrost (permanent frost) is the result where the ground remains frozen in vast areas for extended periods of time -- as much as tens, hundreds, or thousands of years.
Permafrost forms continuous and noncontinuous (insular) areas in the earth. Continuous permafrost accounts for more than 90% of an area, while insular permafrost accounts for 25 to 50% of an area. There are also zones of regular seasonal ground freezing, where the ground freezes during the cold season annually or periodically, that is independent of the condition of the underlying rocks (unfrozen, melted, or frozen). There are also zones of irregular short-term freezing.
Various genetic types of ground ice are influenced by the type of frozen ground, the amounts and types of frozen water (free or molecule-bound), mechanical ground stress, and the temperature conditions of freezing. The processes of forming ground ice are often pronounced in present landscapes.
Ground ice is one of the least stable substances in the lithosphere. Variable heat exchange on the earth's surface causes ice to melt, originating thermokarst, solifluction, cryogenic landslides, and other hazardous phenomena. Ground ice fixes the ground and causes essential changes to its physical, chemical, and other features. This makes the development of permafrost areas for human activities complicated and requires special building technology, maintenance of economic infrastructure, and economic activity.
Temporal Extent
Currentness Reference
publication date
Time Instant
1996
Bounding Box
West
-180
East
180
North
85
South
-85
Theme Keyword
geoscientificinformation
Theme Keyword Thesaurus
ISO 19115 Topic Categories
Theme Keyword
permafrost
Theme Keyword Thesaurus
None
Place Keyword
Earth
Place Keyword Thesaurus
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Temporal Keyword
1996
Temporal Keyword Thesaurus
None
Access Restrictions
For current Columbia affiliates only.
Use Restrictions
For educational, non-commercial use only.
Status
Complete
Maintenance and Update Frequency
None planned
Point of Contact
Contact Organization
ESRI
Delivery Point
380 New York Street
City
Redlands
State
California
Postal Code
92373-8100
Country
USA
Contact Telephone
909-793-2853
Contact Facsimile Telephone
909-793-5953
Contact Electronic Mail Address
info@esri.com
Hours of Service
7:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Pacific time, Monday-Friday
Native Data Set Environment
Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 3; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.3.1.1850
Data Quality Information
Lineage
Source
Originator
Gen. Ed. V.M.Kotlyakov
Title
Atlas of Snow and Ice Resources of the World
Type of Source Media
online
Source
Originator
Kotlyakov, V.M
Publication Date
1994
Title
Mir snega I l'da
Publication Information
Publication Place
Moscow
Publisher
Nauka
Type of Source Media
online
Spatial Data Organization Information
Direct Spatial Reference Method
Vector
Point and Vector Object Information
SDTS Terms Description
SDTS Point and Vector Object Type
String
Point and Vector Object Count
90
Spatial Reference Information
Horizontal Coordinate System Definition
Geographic
Latitude Resolution
0.000000
Longitude Resolution
0.000000
Geographic Coordinate Units
Decimal degrees
Geodetic Model
Horizontal Datum Name
D_Clarke_1866
Ellipsoid Name
Clarke 1866
Semi-major Axis
6378206.400000
Denominator of Flattening Ratio
294.978698
Entity and Attribute Information
Entity Type
Entity Type Label
permfrst
Attributes
FID
Internal feature number. (Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.)
Definition Source
ESRI
Shape
Feature geometry. (Coordinates defining the features.)
Definition Source
ESRI
FNODE_
Frome Node
TNODE_
To Node
LPOLY_
Left polygon
RPOLY_
Right polygon
LENGTH
Length
AFFRSDD_
Africa
AFFRSDD_ID
Africa ID
TYPE
The type of permafrost boundary
1
Boundary of continuous permafrost
2
Boundary of insular permafrost
ASFRSDD_
Asia
ASFRSDD_ID
Asia ID
AUFRSDD_
Australia
AUFRSDD_ID
Australia ID
EUFRSDD_
Europe
EUFRSDD_ID
Europe ID
NAFRSDD_
North America
NAFRSDD_ID
North America ID
SAFRSDD_
South America
SAFRSDD_ID
South America ID
Distribution Information
Format Name
geopackage
Distributor
ESRI; ESRI International Distributors
Name
Metadata Reference Information
Metadata Date
20090616
Metadata Contact
Contact Information
Contact Organization Primary
Contact Organization
Research Data Services (RDS), Columbia University Libraries
Contact Person
GIS/Metadata Librarian
Contact Address
Address
420 W. 118th St. 215 IAB, MC 3301
City
New York
State or Province
NY
Postal Code
10027
Country
USA
Contact Voice Telephone
(212) 854-6012
Contact Electronic Mail Address
data@library.columbia.edu
Hours of Service
7:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Pacific time, Monday-Friday
Metadata Standard Name
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata
