LEO Network

About the LEO Network
The LEO Network is a worldwide network of observers and experts that share their observations of environmental change.
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Observations

Failing permafrost cellars signal change in Alaska whaling towns
A growing number of Arctic underground cellars are being rendered unreliable as global warming and other modern factors force changes to an ancient way of life.
Utqiaġvik, Alaska, United States
Anchorage Daily News

New report sheds more light on climate change impacts to Alaska Native villages
A recent report compiled by the Army Corps of Engineers and researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks documents erosion and other environmental threats facing communities in rural Alaska.
Alaska, United States
Alaska Public Media

Did you know Mauna Kea has permafrost? ... Well, it might not have it for much longer
“Nobody knows how old it is. We do know that it’s disappearing.”
Mauna Kea, Hawaii, United States

The catastrophic thermokarst lake drainage events of 2018 in northwestern Alaska: fast-forward into the future
The combination of abundant rain and snowfall and extremely warm mean annual air temperatures may have led to the destabilization of permafrost around lake margins. Rapid snow melt and high amounts of excess meltwater further promoted rapid lateral breaching at lake shores and consequently sudden drainage of some of the largest lakes of the study region.
Kotzebue, Alaska
The Cryosphere

Erosion may force this Southwest Alaska village to move — again
This is not the first time the village of Chefornak has faced the threat of erosion and flooding, but relocating won’t be as easy as it was last time.
Chefornak, Alaska, United States
Anchorage Daily News

After the last Sigluaq
Sixty years ago, around the time when Matthew Rexford's father's father was turning the ground to build his own ice cellar as a proud whaling captain, there were 12 of these such cellars in Kaktovik. Today there is only one left.
Kaktovik, Alaska, United States
The Arctic Sounder
Alaska Media, LLC., Steve Keller designer and application developer

Alaska to date remains anthrax free
Warming Arctic temperatures can create an environment friendly to bacterial infections like anthrax, an infection spread by contact with bacterial spores, which plant-eating animals may eat or breathe in while grazing.
Alaska, United States
The Cordova Times

Fire hastens permafrost collapse in Arctic Alaska, study finds
While climate change is the primary driver of permafrost degradation in Arctic Alaska, a new analysis of 70 years of data reveals that tundra fires are accelerating that decline, contributing disproportionately to a phenomenon known as "thermokarst," the abrupt collapse of ice-rich permafrost as a result of thawing.
Alaska, United States
Phys.org

Point Lay declares climate emergency
With homes dilapidating, shores eroding and staircases falling off the houses, Point Lay residents are living through some of the most severe consequences of the warming climate in Alaska.
Point Lay, Alaska, United States
The Arctic Sounder

Thawing permafrost is full of ice-forming particles that could get into atmosphere
As atmospheric scientists, we found in a recent study that thawing permafrost contains lots of microscopic ice-nucleating particles. These particles make it easier for water droplets to freeze; and if the ones in permafrost get airborne, they could affect Arctic clouds.
Fairbanks, Alaska, United States
MSN

What's it like to touch permafrost in Yakutia?
In Yakutia, just a few meters separate summer from winter. There are places here where you can always build a snowman or taste fresh snowflakes.
Yakutsk, Sakha, Russia
Russia Beyond

New rivers in the North? Scientists identify how the dissection of Arctic landscapes is changing with accelerating climate change
New research shows that amplified global warming in the Canadian High Arctic drove a profound shift in the structure of a river network carved into a permafrost landscape in only 60 years. Researchers combined air photographs from 1959 with field observations and state-of-the-art Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data they collected in 2019 to understand how the Axel Heiberg Island landscape has evolved over a 60-year period
Axel Heiberg Island
ScienceDaily

The Big Thaw - Alaska becomes the nation's first frontier of climate disruption
Most of Alaska sits atop permafrost. But the ground is thawing, leading to unexpected and sometimes catastrophic outcomes — what scientists have called a “slow disaster.”
Selawik, Alaska, United States
Type Investigations

Russia Losing 1-3 Meters of Arctic Shoreline to Climate Change Annually
An amount of shoreline roughly the size of central Moscow now collapses into the sea every year.
Kolguyev Island
The Moscow Times

Monitoring Service for Multi-Year Permafrost to be Established in Chukotka
Chukotka lawmakers have unanimously approved a law protecting permafrost landscapes and establishing a government service to monitor permafrost changes.
Anadyr, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia
prochukotku.ru

Thawing permafrost could expose Arctic populations to cancer-causing radon
According to a new study, thawing of permafrost due to climate change could expose the Arctic population to much greater concentrations of the invisible, lung cancer-causing gas Radon.
ScienceDaily

New artificial intelligence-assisted technology is planned to track permafrost in Alaska, beyond
Tracking changes in permafrost can take years and sometimes decades, lags that cannot keep up with the transformations in the rapidly warming Arctic.
Fairbanks, Alaska, United States
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

White House officials working directly with Alaskans on the issues around climate change.
The White House’s newly-released National Strategy for the Arctic Region reflects a growing interest by the federal government in the ways climate change is affecting Alaska. And the challenges that brings for security and economic wellbeing for arctic residents. We take a look at a recent visit by White House officials to the state, and what this new interest in the Arctic means for Alaskans.
Quinhagak, Alaska, United States
YouTube

As rising temperatures affect Alaskan rivers, effects ripple through Indigenous communities
Ketchikan, Alaska news. Southeast Alaska news, Alaska news, national and world news.
Sitnews

Alaska firefighters experiment with targeting blazes to save carbon
A pilot program in Alaska lets firefighters tackle fires deep in the wilderness that burn carbon and speed climate change and don’t just threaten homes and lives.
Fairbanks, Alaska, United States
Washington Post

New work season opens for Denali Park Road bridge
The $100 million Pretty Rocks Bridge will cross the site of a landslide that has closed the road at Mile 45 since 2021.
Denali Park
Alaska Public Media

Alaska’s most prominent permafrost cliff is one of a kind
Called yedomas in Russia, the mounds of land are much more populous there.
Itkillik River
Anchorage Daily News

Video probes methane emissions from Siberian sinkholes
Are the newly found sinkholes really new or are they just newly discovered? And how much of a concern at this point?
Yamal Peninsula, Russia
Yale Climate Connections

Arctic Lakes Are Disappearing Fast, and Scientists Are Just Figuring Out Why
Recently, however, scientists have observed not just shrinking lakes but lakes that have completely gone away. A paper published this year in Nature Climate Change, based on satellite imagery, found widespread lake loss across the Arctic over the past 20 years.
Arctic Alaska
Scientific American

As Russia’s Permafrost Thaws, Ancient Pathogens Risk Re-Awakening
Ancient pathogens that have been preserved in northern Russia’s permafrost for millennia could reawaken as global temperatures rise, scientists warn, potentially putting humanity at risk of never-before-seen diseases.
Khatanga, Krasnoyarskiy, Russia
The Moscow Times

In Newtok, decades of erosion have finally caught up to the school
Newtok's school faces demolition due to severe riverbank erosion, as the community grapples with climate-induced relocation challenges.
Newtok, Alaska, United States
KYUK

Russia’s Arctic coast loses 7,000 hectares annually due to climate changes
A new study conducted at the Moscow State University confirms that the Arctic permafrost along the country’s northern coastline is thawing at terrifying speeds.
Dikson, Krasnoyarskiy, Russia
The Independent Barents Observer

A Homer scientist is bringing changes in Arctic permafrost into high-resolution
After growing up in Sweden, Anna Liljedahl moved to Alaska to study hydrology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She now lives in Homer, where she conducts research as an associate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, focusing on how climate change is impacting water in Arctic ecosystems.
KDLL Public Radio for the Central Kenai Peninsula

Russia is to lose its permafrost, minister of natural resources warns
Northern territories ‘will become arable farmland in 20-to-30 years', and will have to adapt - fast. ‘Every such region understands what's coming to it in 20, 30 years. It’ll stop being northern (climate-wise), or it will suddenly turn into a clearly agricultural’, Alexander Kozlov said in an interview to Russian business news outlet RBC.

Scientists study accelerating land subsidence affecting coastal North Slope communities
CLIMATE CHANGECLIMATE CHANGECLIMATE CHANGEAnchorage Daily News When a
Point Lay, Alaska, United States

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