News & Events

2 december 2021

Satellites identify communities at risk of permafrost thaw

Study identifies 'at-risk' Arctic communities and infrastructure over the next 30 years.

Members of the Permafrost_cci project, led by Annet Bartsch, contributed to study which provides, for the first time, a complete overview of the Arctic to identify communities and infrastructure that will be at risk over the next 30 years.

The research, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, describes how the visible traces of human presence, or ‘human footprint’, across the Arctic’s land, which is prone to thaw, has increased by 15% during the last two decades and uses data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions along with artificial intelligence.

At risk of thawing permafrost.jpg

Read the full story Satellites pinpoint communities at risk of permafrost thaw

Reference

Annett Bartsch et al (2021) Expanding infrastructure and growing anthropogenic impacts along Arctic coasts. Environ. Res. Lett. 16 115013. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3176/meta