Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost

Guidelines for Participating Sites

The following criteria apply:

• Each participating country should identify sites representative of its own permafrost longitudinal, latitudinal and altitudinal permafrost zones;
• Collection, documentation, and distribution of appropriate data should be insured on a sustained and timely fashion; and
• Generally accepted, well-documented methodologies should be employed.

Sites in under-represented systems should have priority over already-represented systems. Existing sites are preferred over sites without instrumental or observational records. Given similar rankings on other selection criteria, priority should be given to:

• Sites at which research is also performed;
• Sites with long observational records;
• Sites with long-term funding commitments; and
• Accessible, practical sites.

All data from a site must be freely available and open to outside users. It is important that individual researchers who collected the data be able to do quality control and initial analysis before data are released.