Extent of Arctic permafrost 1997–2019

The image show the difference in the extent of Arctic permafrost in 1997 compared to 2019. Arctic permafrost stores nearly 1700 billion tonnes of frozen and thawing carbon. Anthropogenic warming threatens to release an unknown quantity of this carbon to the atmosphere, influencing the climate in processes collectively known as the permafrost–carbon feedback. Sometimes permafrost can thaw rapidly, but scientists are unsure why and what these abrupt thaws mean in terms of feedback loops. This makes it difficult to predict how the climate will be affected in the future. Thanks to an ESA–NASA initiative, new research digs deep into understanding the complexities of permafrost thaw and how carbon is released over time.

Read full story: Permafrost thaw: it’s complicated