Our new report, “Fresh Eyes on Ice: Observations, Science, and Learning about Alaska’s Frozen Lakes and Rivers,” shares the wonders, hazards and recent changes seen in freshwater ice conditions across Alaska and parts of Canada. 

We partner with NASA Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE), the Alaska Pacific River Forecast Center at the National Weather Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Tanana Chiefs Conference and the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center to support a variety of ice monitoring methods, including community monitoring teams of K-12 teachers and their students in schools all over Alaska, several forms of remote sensing, field surveys, and a citizen science network for photos of ice conditions. 

The report, which shares our project's accomplishments since its inception in 2019, highlights several research findings and aspects of the program that Alaskans may find particularly interesting. We investigated causes and detection methods for open water zones and overflow, two ice hazards that Alaskans regularly encounter when traveling, recreating, hunting, or fishing on rivers and lakes. Citizen scientists and community monitoring teams helped collect almost 6,000 photos of river and lake ice conditions that were shared with the Alaska Pacific River Forecast Center for break-up flooding and other hazard forecasting. K-12 teachers and students have recorded hundreds of ice thickness and snow depth measurements on rivers and lakes in their communities.

Click here to access the report.