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D121 10.5885/45855XD-DC9883ABD609428B Published
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The Canadian Permafrost Electrical Resistivity Survey Database (CPERS)

CPERS Collective

Abstract

The Canadian Permafrost Electrical Resistivity Survey Database (CPERS) is a collection of electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) datasets collected in permafrost environments. The database currently contains sites in British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Quebec, Yukon, and Alaska.

Each dataset provides information to interpret the presence and distribution of frozen and unfrozen ground along a profile where spatial extent and depth of investigation depend on the survey set-up.

Metadata is currently available for 494 ERT surveys collected at 423 different profiles, with repeat surveys being conducted at 15 of those profiles. Raw ERT data is currently available for 292 surveys, while 33 datasets are currently embargoed and will be published within two years and 169 surveys did not include raw data. Data were acquired between 2008-2024. Amalgamated site and borehole metadata are available as supplementary materials.

This dataset supports the following publication: Herring, T., Lewkowicz, A., Chiasson, A., Wang, Y., Way, R., Young, J., Froese, D. G., Smith, S. L., Andersen, B., Bellehumeur-Génier, O., Bevington, A. R., Bonnaventure, P. P., Duguay, M., Etzelmuller, B., Gooseff, M., Godsey, S. E., & Miceli, C. M. (2024). The Canadian Permafrost Electrical Resistivity Survey (CPERS) Database: 15 years of permafrost resistivity data. Arctic Science. https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2023-0058.

The CPERS database project was funded by NSERC PermafrostNet.

DATA POLICY: In order to use any of these datasets you MUST review and adhere to the CPERS data policy, which can be found at https://data.permafrostnet.ca/cpers/data_policy.html.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Please visit https://data.permafrostnet.ca/cpers/. This site includes an interactive map of survey locations where all datasets can be queried by several different parameters and processed data can easily be plotted. It also includes open-source ERT data processing tools and other helpful resources.

Data citation

CPERS Collective 2025. The Canadian Permafrost Electrical Resistivity Survey Database (CPERS), v. 2.0. Nordicana D121, doi: 10.5885/45855XD-DC9883ABD609428B.

Location map

Key references

  • Herring, T., Lewkowicz, A., Chiasson, A., Wang, Y., Way, R., Young, J., Froese, D. G., Smith, S. L., Andersen, B., Bellehumeur-Génier, O., Bevington, A. R., Bonnaventure, P. P., Duguay, M., Etzelmuller, B., Gooseff, M., Godsey, S. E., & Miceli, C. M. (2024). The Canadian Permafrost Electrical Resistivity Survey (CPERS) Database: 15 years of permafrost resistivity data. Arctic Science. https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2023-0058
    DOI: 10.1139/as-2023-0058

Contributors

Herring, Teddi University of Ottawa, University of Calgary Lewkowicz, Antoni University of Ottawa Froese, Duane University of Alberta Calmels, Fabrice Yukon University Way, Robert University of Ottawa, Queen’s University Chiasson, Alexandre University of Alberta Ozeritskiy, Konstantin University of Calgary Wang, Yifeng University of Ottawa, Queen’s University Laurent, Cyrielle Yukon University Landry, Michelle University of Alberta Young, Joseph University of Alberta Alvarez, Alejandro University of Alberta Andersen, Brielle University of Alberta Bellehumeur-Génier, Olivier University of Ottawa, Transport Canada Bevington, Alexandre University of Ottawa, British Columbia Ministry of Forests Bonnaventure, Phillip University of Ottawa, University of Lethbridge Burn, Christopher Carleton University Duguay, Maxime University of Ottawa, BGC Engineering Etzelmüller, Bernd University of Oslo Godsey, Sarah Penn State University, Idaho State University Gooseff, Michael Penn State University, University of Colorado Boulder Hayley, Jocelyn University of Calgary L’Hérault, Emmanuel Université Laval Lorry, Mederic University of Alberta Miceli, Christina University of Ottawa Moshtaghian, Keytash University of Alberta Roy, Louis-Philippe Yukon University Smith, Sharon Natural Resources Canada

Acknowledgements

The CPERS project was funded by the Canadian PermafrostNet which is supported by an NSERC Strategic Partnership Grant for Networks. Thanks to all other contributors including Casey A Buchanan, Alain Cuerrier, Frédéric Dwyer-Samuel, Benoit Faucher, Luise Hermanutz, Zoé Kuntz, Caitlin Lapalme, Allison Rubin, and Nick Brown. We also thank members of the International Permafrost Association action group “Towards an International Database of Geoelectrical Surveys on Permafrost (IDGSP)” who led the development of the metadata form and backend database structure used for this project.

Version history

You can request an older version by contacting nordicana@cen.ulaval.ca

Measurement sites

Site Latitude Longitude Altitude (m)
British Columbia sites 58.284255 -123.73076 More info
Newfoundland and Labrador sites 54.884135 -59.361378 More info
Alaska sites 68.681397 -149.508288 More info
Northwest Territories sites 65.248502 -127.167946 More info
Yukon sites 63.478307 -136.930727 More info
Quebec sites 51.75851 -56.413928 More info
Manitoba sites 57.746902 -94.145717 More info

Supplementary material

Download

Data available for download are in ZIP format. Please properly cite the data when using it.

Alaska_metadata_v2.csv Get file
File: Alaska_metadata_v2.csv
Sites
Alaska sites
Data
Metadata 07/2010 – 07/2011
Alaska_electrode_positions_v2.csv Get file
File: Alaska_electrode_positions_v2.csv
Sites
Alaska sites
Data
Electrode positions 07/2010 – 07/2011
Alaska_ERT_measurements_v2.csv Get file
File: Alaska_ERT_measurements_v2.csv
Sites
Alaska sites
Data
Electrical resistivity tomography data 07/2010 – 07/2011
British_Columbia_metadata_v2.csv Get file
File: British_Columbia_metadata_v2.csv
Sites
British Columbia sites
Data
Metadata 08/2010 – 09/2021
British Columbia_electrode_positions_v2.csv Get file
File: British_Columbia_electrode_positions_v2.csv
Sites
British Columbia sites
Data
Electrode positions 08/2010 – 09/2021
British Columbia_ERT_measurements_v2.csv Get file
File: British_Columbia_ERT_measurements_v2.csv
Sites
British Columbia sites
Data
Electrical resistivity tomography data 08/2010 – 09/2021
Manitoba_metadata_v2.csv Get file
File: Manitoba_metadata_v2.csv
Sites
Manitoba sites
Data
Metadata 08/2023 – 09/2024
Manitoba_electrode_positions_v2.csv Get file
File: Manitoba_electrode_positions_v2.csv
Sites
Manitoba sites
Data
Electrode positions 08/2023 – 09/2024
Manitoba_ERT_measurements_v2.csv Get file
File: Manitoba_ERT_measurements_v2.csv
Sites
Manitoba sites
Data
Electrical resistivity tomography data 08/2023 – 09/2024
Newfoundland and Labrador_metadata_v2.csv Get file
File: Newfoundland_and_Labrador_metadata_v2.csv
Sites
Newfoundland and Labrador sites
Data
Metadata 07/2014 – 08/2024
Newfoundland and Labrador_electrode_positions_v2.csv Get file
File: Newfoundland_and_Labrador_electrode_positions_v2.csv
Sites
Newfoundland and Labrador sites
Data
Electrode positions 07/2014 – 08/2024
Newfoundland and Labrador_ERT_measurements_v2.csv Get file
File: Newfoundland_and_Labrador_ERT_measurements_v2.csv
Sites
Newfoundland and Labrador sites
Data
Electrical resistivity tomography data 07/2014 – 08/2024
Northwest Territories_metadata_v2.csv Get file
File: Northwest_Territories_metadata_v2.csv
Sites
Northwest Territories sites
Data
Metadata 07/2016 – 09/2024
Northwest Territories_electrode_positions_v2.csv Get file
File: Northwest_Territories_electrode_positions_v2.csv
Sites
Northwest Territories sites
Data
Electrode positions 07/2016 – 09/2024
Northwest Territories_ERT_measurements_v2.csv Get file
File: Northwest_Territories_ERT_measurements_v2.csv
Sites
Northwest Territories sites
Data
Electrical resistivity tomography data 07/2016 – 09/2024
Quebec_metadata_v2.csv Get file
File: Quebec_metadata_v2.csv
Sites
Quebec sites
Data
Metadata 09/2015 – 09/2015
Quebec_electrode_positions_v2.csv Get file
File: Quebec_electrode_positions_v2.csv
Sites
Quebec sites
Data
Electrode positions 09/2015 – 09/2015
Quebec_ERT_measurements_v2.csv Get file
File: Quebec_ERT_measurements_v2.csv
Sites
Quebec sites
Data
Electrical resistivity tomography data 09/2015 – 09/2015
Yukon_metadata_v2.csv Get file
File: Yukon_metadata_v2.csv
Sites
Yukon sites
Data
Metadata 09/2008 – 08/2023
Yukon_electrode_positions_v2.csv Get file
File: Yukon_electrode_positions_v2.csv
Sites
Yukon sites
Data
Electrode positions 09/2008 – 08/2023
Yukon_ERT_measurements_v2.csv Get file
File: Yukon_ERT_measurements_v2.csv
Sites
Yukon sites
Data
Electrical resistivity tomography data 09/2008 – 08/2023