Best practices for using electrical resistivity tomography to investigate permafrost

Abstract

Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is a minimally invasive geophysical method that produces a model of subsurface resistivity from a large number of electrical resistance measurements. Strong resistivity contrasts usually exist between frozen and unfrozen earth materials, making ERT an effective and increasingly utilized tool in permafrost research. In this paper, we review more than 300 scientific publications dating from 2000 to 2022 to identify the capabilities and limitations of ERT for permafrost applications. The annual publication rate has increased by a factor of 10 over this period, but several unique challenges remain, and best practices for acquiring, processing, and interpreting ERT data in permafrost environments have not been clearly established. In this paper, we make recommendations for ERT surveys of permafrost and highlight recent advances in the field, with the objective of maximizing the utility of existing and future surveys.