Estimation Change and Future Prediction of Permafrost Area on the Mongolian Plateau

This study focuses on the quantitative simulation of the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of permafrost area, providing scientific value for Mongolian Plateau permafrost dynamics. Understanding the permafrost area of the Mongolian Plateau and accurately predicting future changes in permafrost area are crucial for sustainable environmental development. In this study, ERA5-Land surface temperature (LST) combined with the temperature at the top of permafrost (TTOP) model are used to calculate the annual permafrost area from 1980 to 2024. In addition, this study used the long short-term memory (LSTM) model to predict permafrost area on the Mongolian Plateau from 2025 to 2100. In this study, it is concluded that (1) the study area is not uniformly covered with permafrost, and its distribution is mainly limited to the northern part of the Mongolian Plateau, with a permafrost area of 53.20 × 104 km2; (2) the permafrost area is estimated with an accuracy and precision of 0.94 when compared to the baseline value derived from borehole permafrost data; (3) under the CMIP6 three different shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP) 1-2.6, 2-4.5, and 5-8.5 future scenarios, the distribution of permafrost area shows a downward trend. This study provides a theoretical reference for distribution permafrost area in geographical space, which can help achieve the sustainable development of ice and snow resources.