Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alaska Ocean Observing System (AOOS) @aoos-alaska.bsky.social · 2d

Thinking of everyone in Kotzebue braving this storm — stay safe! 💙🌊

View local water level data (not all data is up to the minute):
🔗 water-level-watch.portal.aoos.org#metadata/100...

More info: awlw.aoos.org

@alaskaskies.bsky.social @alaskawx.bsky.social

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Guido Grosse @grosseguido.bsky.social · 2d

Unser neues #permafrost Projekt PeTCaT @awi.de ist offiziell gestartet: Wir werden in den kommenden 5 Jahren mit einem großartigen internationalen Team zum schnellen Permafrosttauen forschen und einige der wichtigsten Fragen zum Permafrost-Kohlenstoff-Feedback beantworten: www.awi.de/ueber-uns/se...

„PeTCaT“ untersucht den Einfluss von Treibhausgasen aus schnell tauendem Permafrost - AWI

Permafrost in der Arktis speichert große Mengen an organischem Kohlenstoff in gefrorenen Böden und tieferen Ablagerungen. Doch die Arktis erwärmt sich besonders schnell und lässt diese Speicher auftauen. Die Folge: Immer mehr Treibhausgase aus den Böden gelangen in die Atmosphäre. Wo und wie schnell Permafrost auftaut, ist erst wenig erforscht, ebenso wie die Prozesse, die das Tauwetter antreiben. Das internationale Projekt PeTCaT will insbesondere die Wissenslücken um schnelle Tauprozesse schließen. Unter der Leitung des Alfred-Wegener-Instituts werden Forschende aus Deutschland, den USA, Kanada, den Niederlanden und Schweden einen neuartigen Datensatz aufbauen, mit dem sie die möglichen Entwicklungen und Einflüsse von Treibhausgasen aus tauendem Permafrost projizieren können. Gefördert wird das Projekt von der gemeinnützigen Organisation Schmidt Sciences.

www.awi.de

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Guido Grosse @grosseguido.bsky.social · 8d

The #PeTCaT team includes researchers from UAF, UofA, UHH, VUA, SU, WARC, ARI, and NTGS with expertise in permafrost, soil carbon, carbon fluxes, greenhouse gases, limnology, ground ice, plant-soil interactions, spatial analysis, remote sensing, deep learning, and process and Earth system modelling.

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Guido Grosse @grosseguido.bsky.social · 8d

I am happy to announce that we received major funding from Schmidt Sciences under their VICC program to study rapid #Permafrost Thaw Carbon Trajectories (PeTCaT). The 5-year project led by my team @awi.de partners with an international team to quantify how rapid thaw contributes to climate change.

Schmidt Sciences @schmidtsciences.bsky.social · 8d

We're investing $45M over 5 years to launch the Virtual Institute for the Carbon Cycle (VICC).

Four global teams will combine AI, advanced observations & modeling to close major carbon cycle gaps, strengthening climate projections worldwide.

🔗 buff.ly/8WVpM9s
WIRED coverage: buff.ly/YsLAcRZ

Schmidt Sciences awards $45M to narrow carbon cycle knowledge gap - Schmidt Sciences

Globe-spanning interdisciplinary teams will dramatically improve climate modeling to drive better energy, environmental, economic decision making Contact: Carlie Wiener, [email protected]…

www.schmidtsciences.org

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Schmidt Sciences @schmidtsciences.bsky.social · 8d

We're investing $45M over 5 years to launch the Virtual Institute for the Carbon Cycle (VICC).

Four global teams will combine AI, advanced observations & modeling to close major carbon cycle gaps, strengthening climate projections worldwide.

🔗 buff.ly/8WVpM9s
WIRED coverage: buff.ly/YsLAcRZ

Schmidt Sciences awards $45M to narrow carbon cycle knowledge gap - Schmidt Sciences

Globe-spanning interdisciplinary teams will dramatically improve climate modeling to drive better energy, environmental, economic decision making Contact: Carlie Wiener, [email protected]…

www.schmidtsciences.org

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Dave in AK @bikewritedave.bsky.social · 10d

UAF people and Fairbanks residents:

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Brendan O’Neill @permafrostee.bsky.social · 13d

Our latest ground ice mapping. This time improved maps of the Mackenzie Valley and Delta regions, both areas with significant existing and proposed infrastructure. Behind the scenes we are modelling away in other areas toward Ground Ice Map of Canada V2 1/ www.researchgate.net/publication/...

(PDF) Preliminary ground ice modelling of the Mackenzie Valley and Delta regions, Northwest Territories, Canada

PDF | New regional-scale ground ice modelling for the Mackenzie Valley and Delta regions, based on surficial geology aligned with the Geological Survey... | Find, read and cite all the research you ne...

www.researchgate.net

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Science Magazine @science.org · 17d

Long-buried layers of saline permafrost seem to be accelerating climate change’s transformation of the Arctic. https://scim.ag/46AxH2E

Even subzero parts of the Arctic are thawing. Ancient salt is the culprit

Long-buried layers of saline permafrost seem to be accelerating climate change's transformation of the Arctic

scim.ag

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Guido Grosse @grosseguido.bsky.social · 26d

Our new study led by Carl Stadie is using #deeplearning U-Net methods to train on aerial imagery and then analyzed ~32,000 high-res #PlanetScope images across 1.3 million sqkm of the North American Arctic #coastline, mapping close to 20,000 #driftwood deposits. @awi.de www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Large driftwood accumulations along arctic coastlines and rivers - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Large driftwood accumulations along arctic coastlines and rivers

www.nature.com

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Guido Grosse @grosseguido.bsky.social · Sep 11

A new PNAS study links #permafrost thaw and water toxicity levels from metal concentrations. This is bad news for Arctic rivers, their ecosystems, and food chains: www.pnas.org/doi/full/10..... Salmon River in NW Alaska, once praised for its pristine waters, has turned toxic to aquatic life.

Wild, scenic, and toxic: Recent degradation of an iconic Arctic watershed with permafrost thaw | PNAS

The streams of Alaska’s Brooks Range lie within a vast (~14M ha) tract of protected wilderness and have long supported both resident and anadromous...

www.pnas.org

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Guido Grosse @grosseguido.bsky.social · Aug 31

New @awi.de study by Inauen et al developed a machine learning method to map landscape-scale #permafrost thaw such as baydzherakh development and thermo-erosion gully change in North Siberia with panchromatic historical Hexagon spy imagery and modern panchromatic sat imagery. doi.org/10.1029/2024...

Using Texture‐Based Image Segmentation and Machine Learning With High‐Resolution Satellite Imagery to Assess Permafrost Degradation Landforms in the Russian High Arctic

Image segmentation enables landscape-scale mapping of permafrost degradation stages based on their texture in panchromatic imagery Convolutional Neural Networks outperform feature-based Random Fo...

doi.org

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Doomer Girl News @doomergirlnews.bsky.social · Aug 29

Study by researchers at the University of Gothenburg shows that almost half of the rising carbon dioxide emissions after the ice age may have come from thawing permafrost.

phys.org/news/2025-08...

Thawing permafrost raised carbon dioxide levels after the last ice age, study shows

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere vary naturally between ice ages and interglacial periods. A new study by researchers at the University of Gothenburg shows that an unexpectedly large proportion...

phys.org

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Paul Voosen @voosen.me · Aug 29

The NSF-funded Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS) will shut down at the end of Sept. ARCUS has been around since the late 80s; in recent years their staff had dwindled, and NSF said earlier this year that their grant would not be renewed. Another blow to polar science.

ARCUS Monthly Report - August 2025

mailchi.mp

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David Olefeldt @olefeldt.bsky.social · Aug 28

New study where McKenzie Kuhn, I and co-authors show that accounting for differences among wetland and lake types is crucial for estimating current and future boreal-Arctic methane emissions – out now in Nature Climate Change.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Current and future methane emissions from boreal-Arctic wetlands and lakes - Nature Climate Change

How much methane will be emitted from the boreal-Arctic region under climate change is not well constrained. Here the authors show that accounting for distinct wetland and lake classes leads to lower ...

www.nature.com

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Georg Ehring @georgehring.social.cologne.ap.brid.gy · Aug 27

Öl- und Gaskonzerne haben Bohrschlamm und anderen Sondermüll im Permafrost verklappt. Der taut durch die #klimakrise, die Stoffe werden freigesetzt und vergiften die Umgebung.
https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/vergessene-altlasten-tauender-permafrost-gibt-sondermuell-frei-100.html

Vergessene Altlasten: Tauender Permafrost gibt Sondermüll frei

www.deutschlandfunk.de

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Ketil Isaksen @ketilisaksen.bsky.social · Aug 21

Witnessing the rapid and extensive thawing of permafrost in Svalbard is truly impressive but deeply concerning

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Guido Grosse @grosseguido.bsky.social · Aug 16

A very successful Perma-X campaign is ending now and both the Polar-5 and the team left Inuvik. We are looking forward to analyze a mountain of >30 TB of new data collected to better understand how fast #permafrost thaws and subsides, coasts erode, and lakes and vegetation change. @awi.de

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Guido Grosse @grosseguido.bsky.social · Aug 10

The vastness of the Mackenzie Delta is impressive. A beautiful landscape formed by one of the largest Arctic rivers, affected by #permafrost, shifting delta channels, lakes, ice, and a harsh Arctic climate right at the land-ocean interface. An ecosystem ranging from tundra to boreal forest.

Lakes and channels of the vast Mackenzie Delta

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Guido Grosse @grosseguido.bsky.social · Aug 9

Now surveying thawing #permafrost landscapes of the Mackenzie Delta region, home of the #Inuvialuit and #Gwich’in people, during the Perma-X 2025 airborne campaign based out of #Inuvik in #Canada. Our platform #AWI Polar-5 is a refitted DC-3 BT67 equipped with high res cameras and lidar sensors.

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Eos @eos.org · Aug 4

A nearly permafrost-free Arctic? New research from northern Siberian caves holds clues. eos.org/articles/cav...

Cave Deposits Reveal a Permafrost-Free Arctic - Eos

Mineral cave deposits from northern Siberia show that the region was permafrost free during the late Miocene period, when Earth was warmer than today.

eos.org

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Permafrost Pathways @permafrostpathways.bsky.social · Jul 30

“It's our job to learn, then empower and allow [communities] to create things important to them, prioritize projects important to them, and provide tools and resources.”

Great conversation with our collaborator Jackie Qataliña Schaeffer about adaptation planning and Indigenous infrastructure.

Q&A: Jackie Qatalina Schaeffer Argues 'Indigenous Infrastructure' Deserves Federal Funding too

ANCHORAGE — Federal agencies spend billions on roads and energy systems in Alaska, but nothing on fish camps and traditional trails that Jackie Qatalina Schaeffer calls “Indigenous infrastructure” — t...

nativenewsonline.net

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Guido Grosse @grosseguido.bsky.social · Jul 28

Concluded our West Alaska #permafrost studies for 2025. Had a great time in #Kotzebue with a strong AWI-UAF team, fantastic local partners, and mostly nice weather for boating, ATV travel, and tundra hiking. Studied lake drainage, hydrochemistry, erosion, subsidence, vegetation, & paleo-permafrost.

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Guido Grosse @grosseguido.bsky.social · Jul 28

The term “abrupt permafrost thaw” is increasingly used in the scientific literature. The concept comes with challenges as authors look at “abrupt“ change with different perspectives on time scales, magnitudes, and impacts. Webb et al developed a new conceptual framework: doi.org/10.1007/s406...

A Review of Abrupt Permafrost Thaw: Definitions, Usage, and a Proposed Conceptual Framework - Current Climate Change Reports

Purpose of Review We review how ‘abrupt thaw’ has been used in published studies, compare these definitions to abrupt processes in other Earth science disciplines, and provide a definitive framework f...

doi.org

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YR @maybemaybe.bsky.social · Feb 5

The whole of gml.noaa.gov is down. This is pure madness.

gml.noaa.gov

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Mack Baysinger, PhD @mack-baysinger.bsky.social · Feb 21

‘PhD hats’ tell the story of a PhDs students research, through the eyes of their peers. I’ve helped make a few of these hats during my time with @awi.de, and it’s become one of my favorite parts of studying in Germany. The hats are fun to make, and even more fun to write about :) 🎓

Lina Madaj @groenlina.bsky.social · Feb 21

On the @eurogeosciences.bsky.social #cryosphere blog we started a new miniseries called "Cryosphere Caps". Here, @mack-baysinger.bsky.social talks to #cryospherePhDs and the meaning of their graduation hats. Did you have a hat like this?

Check out the very first post! ⬇️
blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr...

Cryosphere Caps: PhD hats and the researchers that wear them

This miniseries features the tradition of ‘PhD hat’ making in German research institutes and universities. For those of you unfamiliar with this idea (as I once was), this is one of the final mileston...

blogs.egu.eu

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Guido Grosse @grosseguido.bsky.social · Jul 24

First week of #permafrost work in #Kotzebue on the Baldwin Peninsula is completed with surveys and sampling of the impressive Cape Blossom, a large hillslope drainage gully east of Kotzebue, and the drained thermokarst lake basin at the Schaeffer family home. Several more days to come…

The Perma-X team inspects exposed permafrost at Cape Blossom

Revegetated lake basin of a thermokarst lake that drained in 2022

Hillslope with large drainage gully surveyed by team.

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Guido Grosse @grosseguido.bsky.social · Jul 15

On our way to #Alaska 🛫💫 for fieldwork around Kotzebue on the Baldwin Peninsula 🇺🇸, a region strongly affected by permafrost thaw as seen in the ALEX portal alex.awi.de. At the same time, our Perma-X #permafrost airborne campaign with #AWI Polar-5 will start in #Inuvik in Northwestern Canada 🇨🇦 🍁

Screenshot of the northern Baldwin Peninsula from the Arctic Landscape EXplorer portal

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Guido Grosse @grosseguido.bsky.social · Jul 8

We continued our studies on what happens biogeochemically (carbon, nitrogen, lipid biomarkers, mercury), when terrestrial #permafrost transitions from land to aquatic environments such as thermokarst lakes and lagoons with an example from the #Alaska North Slope: doi.org/10.5194/bg-2...

Organic carbon, mercury, and sediment characteristics along a land–shore transect in Arctic Alaska

Abstract. Climate warming in the Arctic results in thawing permafrost and associated processes like thermokarst, especially in ice-rich permafrost regions. Since permafrost soils are one of the larges...

doi.org

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Guido Grosse @grosseguido.bsky.social · Jul 8

Detailed investigations of permafrost deposits in Arctic Siberia suggest a much warmer Last Interglacial than today for that region: new Study out by Schirrmeister and a larger international team of colleagues: doi.org/10.5194/cp-2...

Newly dated permafrost deposits and their paleoecological inventory reveal an Eemian much warmer than today in Arctic Siberia

Abstract. In this study, we integrate geochronological, cryolithological, paleoecological, and modeling data to reconstruct the Last Interglacial (LIG) climate around the New Siberian Islands, reveali...

doi.org

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Carrie Nash @carrieinfbx.bsky.social · Jul 8

alaskabeacon.com/2025/07/08/t...

Tundra fire on Alaska’s North Slope among the biggest in recent years | Alaska Beacon

A 2,000-acre lightning-sparked fire north of the Brooks Range fits a pattern of increasing wildfires on the treeless tundra.

alaskabeacon.com

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