Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost
The Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTN‐P) is the primary international programme concerned with monitoring permafrost parameters. GTN‐P was developed in the 1990s by the International Permafrost Association (IPA) under the Global Climate observing System (GCOS) and the Global Terrestrial Observing Network (GTOS), with the long-term goal of obtaining a comprehensive view of the spatial structure, trends and variability of changes in the active layer thickness and permafrost temperature. GCOS and GTOS established 50 Essential Climate Variables (ECVs), of which one is permafrost. Within the GTN-P, involving the senior and young permafrost scientific  community, two permafrost key variables have been identified as ECV's: Network Coordination. Permanent monitoring in GTN-P has been coordinated by the IPA since its establishment. TSP was originally based at the Geological Survey of Canada in Ottawa (GSC), Canada. The TSP observatories in the United States and Russia have been supported by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and managed by the Geophysical Institute Permafrost Laboratory at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Permafrost temperature data from these observatories are freely available at the dedicated US-Russian TSP website (www.permafrostwatch.org) and from the NSF Arctic Data Center. The latter  provides preservation and access for all projects funded by NSF's Arctic Science Program. The CALM program was initially affiliated with and supported by the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) in 1991. CALM has had operational bases at Rutgers University (1991-94), the State University of New York (1994-97), the University of Cincinnati (1998-2003), the University of Delaware (2003-09) and is currently headquartered at George Washington University. Long-term support for data collection in Alaska and Russia has been provided by the U.S. NSF and data from all CALM sites are available through a dedicated CALM web site  and the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. Governance Structure. The Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTN-P) governance structure aims to coordinate, manage, support and promote the GCOS and IPA initiative to monitor the thermal state of permafrost, which currently includes the active layer thickness and ground temperature in all permafrost regions of the Earth. GTN-P frames and adapts the best monitoring strategies and standards for permafrost monitoring in the context of existing and new developments in nature, science and technology. Members of the GTN-P governing board represent a wide palette of specialties involved  in permafrost observation as well as specialists of data management. The GTN-P governing board consists of the Steering Committee, the Advisory Board and the Secretariat. GTN-P Database. The GTN-P database is hosted at the Arctic Portal in Akureyri, Iceland. It is managed in close cooperation with the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Potsdam, Germany, which was also the coordinator of the PAGE21 project within EU 7th framework programme, the main sponsor for the establishment of this database. The database management operates towards providing a web-based resource for essential climate variables (ECV) of  the Global Terrestrial Network on Permafrost (GTN-P), aiming to enable the assessment of the relation between ground temperature, gas fluxes and the Earth’s climate system. The database contains time series of borehole temperatures and grids of active layer thickness: TSP and ALT. The GTN-P database additionally contains air and surface temperature and moisture (DUE Permafrost, MODIS) measured in the terrestrial Panarctic, Antarctic and Mountainous realms.