Connections between vegetation and soil thermal dynamics are critical for estimating the vulnerability of permafrost to thaw with continued climate warming and vegetation changes. The interplay of complex biophysical processes results in a highly heterogeneous soil temperature distribution on small spatial scales. Moreover, the link between topsoil temperature and active layer thickness remains poorly constrained. Sixty-eight temperature loggers were installed at 1–3 cm depth to record the distribution of topsoil temperatures at the Trail Valley Creek study site in the northwestern Canadian Arctic. The measurements were distributed across six different vegetation types characteristic for this landscape. Two years of topsoil temperature data were analysed statistically to identify temporal and spatial characteristics and their relationship to vegetation, snow cover, and active layer thickness. The mean annual topsoil temperature varied between −3.7 and 0.1 ^∘C within 0.5 km². The observed variation can, to a large degree, be explained by variation in snow cover. Differences in snow depth are strongly related with vegetation type and show complex associations with late-summer thaw depth. While cold winter soil temperature is associated with deep active layers in the following summer for lichen and dwarf shrub tundra, we observed the opposite beneath tall shrubs and tussocks. In contrast to winter observations, summer topsoil temperature is similar below all vegetation types with an average summer topsoil temperature difference of less than 1 ^∘C. Moreover, there is no significant relationship between summer soil temperature or cumulative positive degree days and active layer thickness. Altogether, our results demonstrate the high spatial variability of topsoil temperature and active layer thickness even within specific vegetation types. Given that vegetation type defines the direction of the relationship between topsoil temperature and active layer thickness in winter and summer, estimates of permafrost vulnerability based on remote sensing or model results will need to incorporate complex local feedback mechanisms of vegetation change and permafrost thaw.

Global soil moisture records are essential for studying the role of hydrologic processes within the larger earth system. Various studies have shown the benefit of assimilating satellite‐based soil moisture data into water balance models or merging multisource soil moisture retrievals into a unified data set. However, this requires an appropriate parameterization of the error structures of the underlying data sets. While triple collocation (TC) analysis has been widely recognized as a powerful tool for estimating random error variances of coarse‐resolution soil moisture data sets, the estimation of error cross covariances remains an unresolved challenge. Here we propose a method—referred to as extended collocation (EC) analysis—for estimating error cross‐correlations by generalizing the TC method to an arbitrary number of data sets and relaxing the therein made assumption of zero error cross‐correlation for certain data set combinations. A synthetic experiment shows that EC analysis is able to reliably recover true error cross‐correlation levels. Applied to real soil moisture retrievals from Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer‐EOS (AMSR‐E) C‐band and X‐band observations together with advanced scatterometer (ASCAT) retrievals, modeled data from Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS)‐Noah and in situ measurements drawn from the International Soil Moisture Network, EC yields reasonable and strong nonzero error cross‐correlations between the two AMSR‐E products. Against expectation, nonzero error cross‐correlations are also found between ASCAT and AMSR‐E. We conclude that the proposed EC method represents an important step toward a fully parameterized error covariance matrix for coarse‐resolution soil moisture data sets, which is vital for any rigorous data assimilation framework or data merging scheme.

The validation of geophysical data sets (e.g. derived from models, exploration techniques or remote sensing) presents a formidable challenge as all products are inherently different and subject to errors. The collocation technique permits the retrieval of the error variances of different data sources without the need to specify one data set as a reference. In addition calibration constants can be determined to account for biases and different dynamic ranges. The method is frequently applied to the study and comparison of remote sensing, in-situ and modelled data, particularly in hydrology and oceanography. Previous studies have almost exclusively focussed on the validation of three data sources; in this paper it is shown how the technique generalizes to an arbitrary number of data sets. It turns out that only parts of the covariance structure can be resolved by the collocation technique, thus emphasizing the necessity of expert knowledge for the correct validation of geophysical products. Furthermore the bias and error variance of the estimators are derived with particular emphasis on the assumptions necessary for establishing those characteristics. Important properties of the method, such as the structural deficiencies, dependence of the accuracy on the number of measurements and the impact of violated assumptions, are illustrated by application to simulated data.

Differential SAR interferometry, a popular technique for measuring displacements of the Earth's surface, is potentially influenced by changes in soil moisture. Different mechanisms for this impact have been proposed, but its magnitude, sign and even presence remain poorly understood. In this study the dependence of the phase, the coherence magnitude as well as the phase triplets on soil moisture was inferred empirically with regression techniques: this was done for two airborne data sets at L-band. The phase dependence was significant (at a significance level of 0.05) for more than 70% of the fields at HH polarization, its sign corresponding to an increase in optical path upon wetting, and the magnitude of the associated deformation commonly exceeding 2cm for a change in soil moisture of 20%. This trend was similar in both campaigns, whereas the prevalence of soil moisture-related decorrelation differs. These results are only consistent with a dielectric origin of the soil moisture effects, and not with soil swelling or the penetration depth hypothesis. Changes in vegetation impact the phase depending on the crop and polarization, with the vegetation influence at VV being more pronounced for the agricultural crops present in the study area