TY - JOUR N2 - The thermal state of permafrost is a crucial indicator of environmental changes occurring in the Arctic. The monitoring of ground temperatures in Svalbard has been carried out in instrumented boreholes, although only few are deeper than 10 m and none are located in southern part of Spitsbergen. Only one of them, Janssonhaugen, located in central part of the island, provides the ground temperature data down to 100 m. Recent studies have proved that significant warming of the ground surface temperatures, observed especially in the last three decades, can be detected not only just few meters below the surface, but reaches much deeper layers. The aim of this paper is evaluation of the permafrost state in the vicinity of the Polish Polar Station in Hornsund using the numerical heat transfer model CryoGrid 2. The model is calibrated with ground temperature data collected from a 2 m deep borehole established in 2013 and then validated with data from the period 1990-2014 from five depths up to 1 m, measured routinely at the Hornsund meteorological station. The study estimates modelled ground thermal profile down to 100 m in depth and presents the evolution of the ground thermal regime in the last 25 years. The simulated subsurface temperature trumpet shows that multiannual variability in that period can reach 25 m in depth. The changes of the ground thermal regime correspond to an increasing trend of air temperatures observed in Hornsund and general warming across Svalbard. L1 - http://www.journals.pan.pl/Content/99631/PDF/10183_Volume37_Issue2_04_paper.pdf L2 - http://www.journals.pan.pl/Content/99631 PY - 2016 IS - No 2 EP - 242 DO - 10.1515/popore-2016-0013 KW - Arctic KW - Hornsund KW - permafrost evolution KW - Permafrost modelling KW - Spitsbergen A1 - Wawrzyniak, Tomasz A1 - Osuch, Marzena A1 - Napiórkowski, Jarosław A1 - Westermann, Sebastian PB - Polish Academy of Sciences PB - Committee on Polar Research VL - vol. 37 DA - 2016 T1 - Modelling of the thermal regime of permafrost during 1990–2014 in Hornsund, Svalbard SP - 219 UR - http://www.journals.pan.pl/dlibra/publication/edition/99631 T2 - Polish Polar Research ER -