ICE WEDGE POLYGONS ARE PERIGLACIAL GEOMORPHIC FEATURES THAT COVER 250 000 SQUARE KILOMETERS IN THE CIRCUMPOLAR ARCTIC. RESEMBLING DESICCATION POLYGONS IN DRY LAKE BEDS AND ASSOCIATED WITH THERMAL CONTRACTION CRACKING IN FROZEN SOILS ICE WEDGE POLYGONS MEASURE SEVERAL TENS OF METERS ACROSS AND INTRODUCE UP TO A METER OF RELIEF TO OTHERWISE FLAT TUNDRA LANDSCAPES. THE MORPHOLOGY OF MOST POLYGONS FALLS BETWEEN TWO END MEMBERS: BASIN-SHAPED LOW-CENTERED POLYGONS (LCPS) CHARACTERIZED BY RIMS OF SOIL AT THEIR EDGES AND CONVEX-UP HIGH-CENTERED POLYGONS (HCPS) WHICH HAVE SIMPLE MOUNDED SHAPES AND ARE ASSOCIATED WITH PERMAFROST DEGRADATION. THE GOALS OF THIS RESEARCH ARE TO EXPLORE THE THERMAL PROCESSES THAT CAUSE LCPS TO TRANSITION INTO HCPS AND TO STUDY HOW THIS CHANGE IN TOPOGRAPHY ALTERS THE HYDROLOGIC AND THERMAL REGIMES OF TUNDRA SOILS INFLUENCING THE MOBILITY OF SOIL ORGANIC CARBON. THE FIRST HYPOTHESIS IS THAT ICE WEDGE POLYGON TOPOGRAPHY CREATES ZONATION IN THE SUBSURFACE HEAT BUDGET. THE PERMAFROST BENEATH AN LCP DEGRADES WHEN THE ENERGY ABSORBED FROM THE ATMOSPHERE IN SUMMER PRIMARILY IN SUNKEN WET ZONES WITH LOW ALBEDO IS NOT MATCHED BY HEAT RELEASED BACK TO THE ATMOSPHERE IN WINTER PRIMARILY THROUGH THE ELEVATED RIMS WHICH ARE LESS INSULATED BY SNOW COVER. TO TEST THIS HYPOTHESIS A THREE-DIMENSIONAL COMPUTER MODEL OF THERMAL HYDROLOGY IN AN LCP WILL BE CONSTRUCTED USING AN OPEN-SOURCE FINITE ELEMENT CODE TAILORED TO SIMULATE PEAT-RICH TUNDRA SOILS. SIMULATIONS WILL BE CALIBRATED AGAINST A YEAR OF SUB-DAILY SUBSURFACE TEMPERATURE OBSERVATIONS AT SIX DEPTHS AND NINE LOCATIONS ACROSS THE POLYGON INCORPORATING SOIL PHYSICAL PARAMETERS ESTIMATED FROM ANALYSIS OF SAMPLES COLLECTED DURING A JPL-SURP-FUNDED RESEARCH PROJECT. THE MODEL WILL HELP DETERMINE WHETHER DOWNWARD SUBSURFACE HEAT CONDUCTION IN SUMMER IS GREATEST IN POLYGON CENTERS AND UPWARD HEAT CONDUCTION IS WINTER IS GREATEST BENEATH RIMS. ADDITIONAL SIMULATIONS WILL THEN DETERMINE WHETHER REMOVAL OF LCP RIMS IMPEDES THE RELEASE OF HEAT IN WINTER DRIVING PERMAFROST DEGRADATION. CONCEPTS ESTABLISHED FROM THIS MODEL WILL BE EXTRAPOLATED TO A SECOND SITE WITH THREE YEARS OF TEMPERATURE DATA FROM POLYGONS. THE SECOND HYPOTHESIS IS THAT GREATER VOLUMES OF SHALLOW GROUNDWATER ARE RELEASED TO SURFACE FLOWS FROM THE INTERIOR OF HCPS THAN FROM LCPS. THIS PROCESS IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT INCREASES THE POTENTIAL FOR DISPERSAL OF DISSOLVED ORGANIC CARBON WHICH RAPIDLY OXIDIZES WHEN EXPOSED TO SUNLIGHT. TO TEST THE HYPOTHESIS CALIBRATED SOIL PARAMETERS FROM THE FIRST MODEL WILL BE USED TO CONSTRUCT LARGER-SCALE SIMULATIONS CENTERED ON A PAIR OF HYDROLOGIC BASINS THAT CONTAIN BOTH HCPS AND LCPS. THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE BASINS WILL BE SOURCED FROM AN AIRBORNE LIDAR DATASET. A SOFTWARE APPLICATION DEVELOPED BY THE AUTHOR WILL THEN SURVEY THE PREVALENCE OF BOTH POLYGON TYPES ACROSS ~480 SQUARE KILOMETERS OF TUNDRA EXTRAPOLATING RATES OF GROUNDWATER RELEASE TO THE LANDSCAPE-SCALE. COMPLEMENTING THESE SIMULATIONS OBSERVATIONS OF CO2 CONCENTRATIONS IN THE AIR COLUMN ABOVE THE SURVEYED AREA FROM THE FOURIER TRANSFORM SPECTROMETER FLOWN ON BOTH NASA S CARVE MISSION AND THE OCO-2 SATELLITE WILL BE ANALYZED USING AN INVERSE MODEL OF ATMOSPHERIC MIXING. THE RESULTS WILL DEMONSTRATE WHETHER DIFFERENCES IN CARBON EMISSIONS FROM DIFFERENT POLYGON TYPES CAN BE DETECTED USING AIRBORNE AND SPACEBORNE SENSORS.