Photo of Angela Szesciorka.

Dr. Angela Szesciorka is a Research Associate at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and a Faculty Affiliate at the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University where she studies baleen whale ecology and movement. With a passion for writing, Szesciorka studied journalism for her undergraduate degree but went back to school for ocean science at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in Moss Landing, California when she realized her dream of becoming a marine biologist could be a reality. Her Master’s research exposed her to the world of whale research and she knew she’d found her passion.

Two bowhead whales surface in a small lead in April 2012. Photo by Kate Stafford.

She went on to pursue a PhD at Scripps Institution of Oceanography where she developed her approach for passive acoustic monitoring of blue whales and continued her research at Oregon State University through a polar postdoctoral fellowship funded by the National Science Foundation. Here, she worked with Dr. Kate Stafford who is one of the leading experts in bowhead whales in the Arctic. Szesciorka has now been studying whale ecology for over a decade.

Bowhead whales, as Szesciorka explains, are unique in that they’re endemic to the Arctic, can live up to 200 years, have massive heads that help them break through overlying ice to come up to breathe, and sing complex songs. She notes that similar to Tibetan monks, bowhead whales can produce two different tones at the same time, making their auditory patterns quite diverse and ethereal.

Dataset Highlight

Szesciorka explains that as the Arctic is changing faster than any other region on the planet, sea ice extent, volume, and age are all declining substantially. This and other large-scale environmental changes are altering the distribution and movement of Arctic marine mammal species. This led Szesciorka to ask: Is bowhead whale migration timing changing? Are their movement patterns across the Arctic changing? If so, how and why? She hypothesized that changes in whale behavior could be linked to changes in air temperature, sea ice, or prey movements, but also considered how humans could be impacting the species.

Spectrogram (visual representation of sound) of bowhead whale song from the Bering Strait recorded in January 2011. Time (sec) is displayed on the x-axis and frequency (kHz) is displayed on the y-axis. Graphic illustration by Angela Szesciorka.

Although Szesciorka began by going shipboard to tag whales, she realized the difficulty of this and moved to alternative methods such as passive acoustic monitoring or remotely-collected data. This method involves deploying hydrophones, which are underwater microphones, to record sound in the ocean with the goal of studying bowhead whale calls and songs. Hydrophones were deployed at three locations: just north of the Bering Strait, in the Chukchi Plateau, and in the western Beaufort Sea, encapsulating the bowhead whale migratory pattern, allowing her to track the timing of when they’re in these different areas. To extend the lifespan of the hydrophones, they are programmed to record at set intervals, reducing total recording time while still capturing representative data. She also emphasized the difficulty of analyzing the output of these hydrophones and is leading a separate project to determine if it’s possible to auto-identify bowhead whales in acoustic data. Currently, she looks at spectrograms to visually identify bowhead whale sounds to produce a timeseries of bowhead whale presence. This research resulted in the creation of the dataset published at the Arctic Data Center:

• Angela Szesciorka. (2025). Bowhead Whale Presence and Migration Timing in the Pacific Arctic 2008-2022. Arctic Data Center. doi:10.18739/A22Z12R6D. 

As part of this same research, Szesciorka and colleagues have published two different papers on this work in Springer Nature Link and Geophysical Research Letters: 

• Szesciorka, A. R., and Stafford, K. M. (2023). Sea ice directs changes in bowhead whale phenology through the Bering Strait. Movement Ecology, 11, 8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-023-00374-5. 
• Szesciorka, A. R., Stafford, K. M., and Berchok, C. L. (2024). Basin-wide shift in bowhead whale migration in the Pacific Arctic. Geophysical Research Letters, 51, e2023GL106416. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL106416. 

Szesciorka explains that she also integrates environmental data to match with these acoustic recordings and gets her sea ice data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, a frequent collaborator of the Arctic Data Center.

Single bowhead whale in young ice in April 2015. Photo by Kate Stafford.

Dataset Creation and Impact

Szesciorka was excited to make her data publicly accessible and ensured her data can be used by anyone by intentionally creating reproducible code throughout her project. While some researchers remain reluctant to openly share data, she’s hoping the climate continues to shift towards more open and collaborative practices. By making her data openly accessible, she hopes her data is used to answer more research questions and generate new insights that wouldn’t be possible in a siloed data landscape.

She is also hopeful that this dataset continues to grow over time and that the acoustic recordings, which record all sounds in the ocean, are used for other research questions outside of her project and continue to provide new information about the changing Arctic.

Unexpected Patterns in Bowhead Whale Migration

Schematic of changes to bowhead whale migration from earlier years (<2012) to later years (>2018) at migratory destinations throughout the western Arctic (Northwestern Bering Sea, Bering Strait, Chukchi Plateau, Western Beaufort Sea). Graphic illustration by Angela Szesciorka.

Szesciorka suspected a connection between bowhead whales and sea ice as their migration patterns moved more northward with more persistent sea ice. Each spring, bowhead whales typically migrate through the Bering Strait to feed on abundant zooplankton in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, yet their migration patterns began to change. Szesciorka observed that bowhead whales were spending more time north of the Bering Strait in the winter and in the summer, moving back and forth between the Canadian Beaufort Sea, where they usually feed, and the Chukchi Sea. This behavior suggested that feeding areas within the Chukchi Sea are becoming more favorable.

This unexpected behavior pattern was more apparent when pairing passive acoustic monitoring data with sea ice information. An analysis suggested the changing sea ice conditions, driven by a warming climate, were influencing where bowhead whales migrate, potentially driven by prey availability. While this change reflected the species’ adaptability to the changing environment, the long-term consequences of these changes are unknown. 

Graphic depicting northward shift of bowhead whales with decreasing sea ice. Graphic illustration by Clarissa Teixeira.

Another unexpected outcome was that as bowhead whales changed their migration patterns, other whale species were doing the same. Although bowhead populations have recovered since commercial whaling was banned in the United States, they now face growing competition in Arctic waters. Humpback and minke whales, historically uncommon in the Arctic, are spending more time feeding in these waters. Passive acoustic monitoring data even reveal multiple whale species talking over each other in the waters, suggesting increased competition and overlap.

Additionally, killer whale predation on bowhead whales is increasing, which was rarely observed, and this new, growing concern requires more research. Szesciorka emphasized that understanding these dynamics will be critical for predicting the future of bowhead whales and the region and will also have important implications on Arctic Indigenous communities who rely on these marine mammals for subsistence.

Pursuing a Career in STEM

Photo of Angela Szesciorka.

Whether in the Arctic or elsewhere, pursuing a career in science can be challenging. Szesciorka emphasized the importance of taking any opportunities available to get your foot through the door. She suggested reaching out to researchers in your field of interest and asking to schedule a time to discuss their work. These informal conversations can be a low pressure way to gain more insight on a career path and build a meaningful connection. Volunteering is another pathway to help you explore and understand what particular species, field, or skill excites you most. Szesciorka also encourages students to apply for as many scholarships or funded research opportunities as possible, noting that enthusiasm and initiative are great qualities in emerging scientists.

Bowhead surfacing in a lead off Utqiaġvik, AK in April. Photo by Kate Stafford.

After spending approximately 175 days at sea, surrounded by marine mammals in the open ocean, Szesciorka deemed it one of the most rewarding experiences of her career thus far. She recalled an experience where hundreds of northern bottlenose whales surrounded their vessel in the Davis Strait near Greenland, and was fascinated by their level of curiosity. This kind of unique experience is what she loves most about getting out in the ocean. On a different expedition, she described an encounter in which humpback whales approached their boat in groups of two to three and lingered around for several hours. Szesciorka noted that they were able to record a wide range of acoustic sounds, revealing different and unexpected vocalizations from the whales.

How the Arctic Data Center Fosters Collaboration 

The Arctic Data Center has served as a great tool for finding data and new collaborators for Szesciorka. She first used it to discover other Arctic researchers also studying bowhead whales, which led her to find one of her current collaborators. After discovering this group’s bowhead whale acoustic dataset, she recognized how valuable it would be to combine their research efforts. By integrating their data together, they were able to develop a deeper understanding into the drivers and implications of shifting bowhead whale migration patterns.

Written by Angie Garcia and Nicole Greco
Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinators

The International Arctic Research Center is housed in the Akasofu Building on the UAF Troth Yeddha’ Campus. UAF photo by Leif Van Cise.

The International Arctic Research Center (IARC) was founded in 1999 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks through an agreement between Japan and the United States with a focus on collaborative research. Now, IARC consists of over 100 scientists, analysts, students, and professional staff who focus on Arctic system science, climate change, and climate adaptation research. Their core values include conducting actionable research, promoting a deeper understanding of Arctic change, ensuring their work is grounded in place, and cultivating a welcoming, varied, creative, and collaborative environment.

Collaborating with IARC

The Arctic Data Center is proud to partner with IARC to advance Arctic data sharing and stewardship. IARC has long been a leader in collecting, managing, and synthesizing data that support understanding the rapidly changing Arctic. This partnership reflects a shared commitment to making Arctic research open, accessible, and usable, while supporting scientists, communities, and policymakers alike. Our history with IARC is vast and some of these collaborations are outlined here.

Research Networking Activities for Sustained Coordinated Observations of Arctic Change (RNA CoObs)

Organizers and participants of the 2024 “Equitable Information Portal Design for Mobilizing Salmon Data” workshop, hosted by members of the RNA CoObs team. Credit: Matt Jones.

A key component of this collaboration is the NSF-supported Research Networking Activities for Sustained Coordinated Observations (RNA CoObs) project. RNA CoObs focuses on improving coordination among Arctic observation networks to ensure that environmental measurements are consistent, high-quality, and widely usable. By identifying shared variables and aligning data collection across regions, the project helps scientists build a coherent picture of Arctic change. An important aspect of RNA CoObs is its emphasis on community priorities, including Indigenous Knowledge and food security, ensuring that observations are relevant not only for scientific research but also for local communities that rely on Arctic ecosystems. The Arctic Data Center supports this work by archiving RNA CoObs datasets, making them discoverable and reusable for researchers around the globe. In this way, the collaboration helps transform complex, multi-source observations into data that are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). Members of the RNA CoObs and Arctic Data Center teams have worked together to develop and facilitate two workshops focused on conceptualizing a Pan-Pacific salmon knowledge portal to support improved integration of disparate datasets related to salmon, their environments and the people who depend on them. Read the first workshop report here.

Scenarios Network for Alaska and Arctic Planning (SNAP)

Mike DeLue presenting SNAP work.

Another cornerstone of the collaboration is the Scenarios Network for Alaska and Arctic Planning (SNAP) program. SNAP generates downscaled climate scenario datasets for Alaska and the broader Arctic region, including historical observations and future projections for temperature, precipitation, and other key climate variables. They also produce dynamic tools to make complex model outputs more accessible to programmers, decision-makers, and researchers. These tools and data allow resource managers, policymakers, and communities to anticipate and respond to environmental changes. By working with the Arctic Data Center to preserve and share SNAP data, IARC ensures that these valuable climate scenarios remain accessible, well-documented, and integrated into broader Arctic data ecosystems, extending their usefulness far beyond the original research team.

Long-Term Data Archiving

In 2020, datasets from the IARC data archive were migrated to the Arctic Data Center for long-term preservation, reinforcing the ongoing partnership between the two organizations and ensuring that critical Arctic data are protected and available for future generations of researchers. The Arctic Data Center also hosts the Arctic Report Card data portal. The Report Card has been issued annually since 2006 and provides information on the current state of the Arctic environmental system throughout time, often authored by experts from IARC.  The portal is an interactive webpage that links to datasets used in the Arctic Report Card, increasing transparency and access of datasets. The latest Arctic Report Card was released in December 2025 and can be found here. 

A Lasting Impact

Salmon jump in a stream. NPS photo by Russ Taylor.

Beyond these individual projects, the partnership between the Arctic Data Center and IARC demonstrates the power of linking research expertise with robust data stewardship. IARC’s long-standing history of field research and data generation, combined with the Arctic Data Center’s focus on preservation and discoverability, ensures that Arctic data are not only collected but also made meaningful for long-term science and decision-making. Through RNA CoObs, SNAP, and other ongoing collaborative efforts, the Arctic Data Center and IARC turn observations into insights and data into decisions, a model for how Arctic research can meet the challenges of a rapidly changing environment while supporting the communities that call the region home.

Written by Nicole Greco

Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinator

Miesse presenting this data on a poster at the 2025 Arctic Science Summit Week in Boulder, Colorado. Photo credit: Tyler Miesse.

Tyler Miesse is a PhD research assistant at George Mason University, and is involved in coastal engineering projects that focus on the physical processes that govern coastal hazards such as waves and storm surges. His research background naturally led him to research in the Arctic, a region experiencing rapid environmental changes and home to one of the least studied coastal systems in the world.

As Miesse notes, there is a limited understanding of how changes like sea ice declining are propagating through Arctic coastal systems. This combination of scientific uncertainty and accelerated environmental change has made the Arctic a challenging yet compelling area for research, particularly to better understand the lives of those most affected by these changes.

A central question guiding Miesse’s research is to further understand how ongoing environmental changes are influencing waves, coastal flooding, and the timing of hazardous conditions along Arctic coastlines. Additionally, Miesse is working to understand how these changes are unfolding over time. Since long-term Arctic observations are limited, it can be challenging to know what weather events are due to natural variability and which are signs of climate change.

Dataset Highlight

Image of an area in the North Slope. Photo credit: Tyler Miesse

Miesse’s dataset includes a 45-year hydrodynamic hindcast of storm-driven water levels across Northern and Western Alaska. Hindcasting is a model approach to recreate historical conditions, and allow researchers to simulate past coastal processes. In this case, Miesse is using sea ice concentration and atmospheric forcing to support the simulations in the dataset.

Using a ADCIRC+SWAN modeling framework, Miesse was able to simulate interactions between the ocean, land, sea ice, and atmosphere, focusing on the period from 1979 to 2024 for Western to Northern Alaska coasts. The model also leveraged data from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analysis (ERA5) to support the simulations and create the long-term dataset used to investigate the annual conditions along the Alaskan Arctic coastline.

To support data reuse, Miesse ensured this dataset included comprehensive metadata to allow future users of the data to clearly understand how the data was generated and how it can be applied in other contexts. To explore more, visit the model output on the Arctic Data Center:

• Tyler Miesse. (2025). Arctic Alaska Coastal Hazards Dataset (1979 – 2024). Arctic Data Center. doi:10.18739/A2MW28G9D.

Methods and Impact

In developing this dataset, a combination of numerical modeling, historical atmospheric data, and long-term simulations helped fill in the gaps of the direct observations. Additionally, Miesse used established hydrodynamic and wave models to simulate waves and water levels based on sea ice conditions and atmospheric inputs such as winds and pressure. These models were run consistently over decades of observational data with the exact framework in order to build the long-term series that could be examined without artificial differences caused by changing methods.

The resulting dataset spans several decades and provides a continuous picture of how waves and coastal water levels have evolved across Northern and Western Alaska. This long-term and consistent approach also made it possible to study trends, seasonal shifts, and extreme events in a way that would not be feasible using observational data alone. By providing a foundation, the dataset supports other Arctic science efforts seeking to model and better understand how Arctic coastlines are responding to environmental changes.

Screenshot of the Alaska Coastal Hazards Information System ArcGIS map.

Technological Innovations

Improving both the quantity and quality of available data in the Arctic is one of Miesse’s hopes for the future. He notes there is a significant need to expand observational coverage, particularly through more robust and autonomous monitoring systems that can operate year-round in harsh Arctic conditions. As satellite remote sensing continues to improve, Miesse emphasizes the importance of enhancing our ability to observe changes consistently over time, particularly in regions where observations are often limited by poor weather conditions and accessibility. 

Now, these goals are beginning to take shape through collaborative efforts at George Mason University and the University of Alaska Anchorage. Together, Miesse and his team are developing the Alaska Coastal Hazards Information System, which is ArcGIS based map that incorporates multiple layers of coastal data including community locations, storm surge events from the past 45 years, county boundaries, and more. While the map is still under development, it aims to serve as an accessible resources for understanding coastal hazards across Alaska. 

Looking ahead, Miesse notes that better coupling of atmospheric, ocean, and sea ice models, along with improved representation of ice and ocean interactions, could allow researchers to capture Arctic processes more realistically. Like many other researchers express, better computational resources would allow the whole Arctic research landscape to have improved, higher-resolution, and long-term simulations to help understand the extreme and seasonal changes of the region. Ultimately, Miesse wants to see further development of open and accessible data platforms that would allow long-term Arctic datasets easier to access, share, and integrate across disciplines.

Image of Miesse’s advisor in the North Slope. Photo credit: Tyler Miesse

Collaboration Across Disciplines

Collaboration is central to this dataset, which is part of a greater collaborative project in the Navigating the New Arctic program designed to address complex Arctic changes through interdisciplinary collaboration. This project is known as NNA Track 1: Arctic impacts and reverberations of expanding global maritime trade routes, and it is focused on understanding how rapid environmental change in the Arctic is reshaping maritime activity, and how those changes ripple through natural, built, and human systems.

Funded by the National Science Foundation under Award #1927785, the project’s interdisciplinary structure has allowed Miesse’s research to remain grounded in his expertise in coastal hazards and hydrodynamics, while also expanding the dataset’s scope to consider other maritime operations. As a result, this dataset contributes to the physical science component of the project with the development of a long-term record of waves and storm-driven water levels for Arctic Alaska.

To learn more about this project,explore the Arctic Expansion data portal hosted by the Arctic Data Center, which brings together additional datasets from NNA Track 1:

• Arctic Expansion | NNA Track 1: Arctic impacts and reverberations of expanding global maritime trade routes

Data Accessibility on the Arctic Data Center

The Arctic Data Center has played a key role in making this dataset openly accessible. The highlighted dataset spans 45 years and exceeds 200 terabytes, requiring significant processing time and storage size. By hosting the dataset on our repository, the data can be shared more broadly rather than being limited to a single project or research group. This accessibility allows other scientists to explore the data, build on the results, and apply it to new research questions without restraints or limitations to recreate the simulations themselves.

Encouraging Future Scientists

Miesse encourages future scientists to stay curious and to ask the difficult questions, particularly in Arctic research where systems are challenging to navigate and not yet fully understood. He emphasizes that progress depends more on scientists who are motivated to push beyond what is already known. Advancing Arctic science requires persistence, openness to learning, and a genuine interest in expanding our collective understanding.

Written by Angie Garcia
Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinator

The Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO) is funded by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs Award #2135176 and has served as a community building and support organization for polar early-career scientists since 2022. PSECCO supports and uplifts early-career scientists by fostering a vibrant community across disciplines, providing resources and opportunities through workshops, training, and travel funds, and working collaboratively to create a welcoming environment for everyone in polar research. The Arctic Data Center has been fortunate to collaborate with PSECCO in support of this mission.

Key Themes Driving PSECCO

 At its core, PSECCO is about fostering a strong, supportive community for early-career polar scientists. PSECCO is built on the idea that early-career researchers are essential to the future of polar science and that supporting them requires more than funding. One key focus is cross-disciplinary collaboration. Polar research spans glaciology, oceanography, geology, ecology, the social sciences, and more, and PSECCO works to break down barriers between disciplines, helping individuals regardless of location or career stage make connections beyond their own labs or institutions.

Capacity building through practical experience is another central theme within PSECCO. Beyond workshops and travel support, PSECCO emphasizes peer-to-peer learning, mentorship networks, and exposure to career paths both inside and outside academia in their monthly webinar series. These opportunities allow early-career polar scientists explore possibilities within polar science and feel supported as they grow. 

Creating a sustainable, supportive, and welcoming community is also a priority. PSECCO encourages an environment where researchers can share ideas, ask questions, and learn from one another, building relationships that strengthen the field as a whole. Partnerships with data centers, universities, and international programs expand these opportunities, helping individual scientists thrive while contributing to a more connected and resilient polar research community.

Building Community Through Workshops and Webinars

Workshops and webinars are at the heart of PSECCO’s efforts to connect early-career polar scientists. These events go beyond traditional training by creating spaces where researchers can meet peers, exchange ideas, and tackle challenges together, both in-person and online. Whether introducing new research methods, discussing career development, or exploring interdisciplinary topics, PSECCO’s sessions help participants expand their skills while building meaningful professional relationships.

Participants and organizers of PECWS. Photo Credit: Lauren Lipuma, CIRES, CU Boulder.

The Arctic Data Center has collaborated with PSECCO to bring targeted training directly to the community. At the 2025 Polar Early Career World Summit, our Outreach Team hosted a workshop on FAIR and Ethical Data Collection for Collaborative Research. Participants learned best practices for making research data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR), while also respecting cultural and ethical considerations in their place of research. The session combined hands-on exercises with breakout discussions, giving early career scientists the tools and confidence to implement these practices into their own work. Outcomes from the Summit are summarized in a Synthesis Report, capturing the voice of 238 early career polar researchers from around the world in an effort to inform the upcoming Fifth International Polar Year (IPY5).

Building on the momentum of the 2025 Polar Early Career World Summit, PSECCO and the Arctic Data Center are hosting an upcoming webinar on Fair and Ethical Data Collection for Collaborative Polar Research. The session will provide participants who could not attend the Summit with the opportunity to engage with the same practical strategies for making data FAIR and ethical. The webinar will take place on February 11th, 2026 from 10am-11am PT. To attend, please register.

PSECCO Director Mariama Dryák-Vallies (right) with Arctic Data Center Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinators Angie Garcia (left) and Nicole Greco (center) at the 2025 Toolik All Scientists Meeting.

Looking Ahead: The Legacy of PSECCO

Through its commitment to community building, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and professional development, PSECCO has become a cornerstone of support for early-career polar scientists. Its work demonstrates that strong science is built not only on data and discovery, but also on relationships, shared knowledge, and spaces where researchers can grow together.

Collaborations like those between PSECCO and the Arctic Data Center highlight what is possible when organizations work together to support the next generation of researchers. By equipping polar early-career scientists with practical skills, ethical frameworks, and a sense of belonging within the broader research community, PSECCO is helping shape a more connected, resilient, and forward-looking future for polar science, grounded in collaboration, curiosity, and care for both people and the places they study.

Written by Nicole Greco

Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinator

Dr. Schmidt hosting a table at a community wildfire event in May 2022.

Dr. Jen Schmidt grew up in the Lower 48, but from an early age, watching the morning news and national weather reports sparked a fascination with Alaska and a long-held desire to travel there. After double majoring in ecology, evolution, and behavior and genetics and cellular biology at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Schmidt used her graduate education as a gateway to Alaska. With a passion for impactful interdisciplinary research, Schmidt pursued a Ph.D. in wildlife biology at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, focusing on the social and ecological influences on the genetic structure of Moose. While this project combined Schmidt’s love for fieldwork and labwork, she quickly realized an important component of the work—humans, especially those interested in moose hunting and management. Throughout graduate school, Schmidt fell in love with Alaska and decided to stay and do research in the place she’s most passionate about.

Schmidt is now an Associate Professor of Natural Resources Management and Policy at the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research, where she studies the human dimensions of wildlife, natural resource management, and ecosystem services, and uses tools such as geographic information systems (GIS) and modeling. We met with Schmidt to learn more about their work in wildfire management and hazardous fuels.

Dataset Highlight

Illustration of the three study areas where wildfire hazard and exposure maps were created and the base vegetation.

In general, Schmidt’s research is highly adaptable and responsive to community needs, both for residents and agencies. With a background in resource management, she specializes in blending environmental work with social issues. As a resident of Anchorage, along with 40% of Alaska’s population, Schmidt recognized the need for locally developed products to inform science-based decisions.  Having lived in both Fairbanks and Anchorage, she noticed many homes with highly flammable spruce trees located nearby. Schmidt notes that despite the risk, many communities have outdated Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPP), including her home town of Anchorage, which was from 2008. To effectively inform these plans, risk maps need to be regularly updated, and Schmidt’s collaborative research is helping do just that.

Overview of the methods used to create wildfire exposure maps, which include the creation of hazardous fuels.

This project resulted in the creation of the Hazardous Fuels: Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska and Whitehorse, Yukon 2014-2054 dataset, authored by Jennifer Schmidt, Zeke Ziel, Monika Calef, and Anna Varvak, and published on the Arctic Data Center. 

The dataset is based on NASA’s Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) annual landcover layer from 1984-2014 and builds upon the foundational work of Jennifer L. Beverly (University of Alberta) and others. The landcover classes enabled the team to assign a flammability score, which allowed for analysis of fire risk and ember dispersal. ArcGIS and zonal statistics were used to calculate average flammability within specific regions, combining remote sensing data with ESRI tools to develop detailed map products. 

Shows the tools used to create hazardous fuels and wildfire exposure maps.

Flammability hazard, or hazardous fuel, refers to vegetation that has the potential to ignite and cause damage, loss, or harm to people, infrastructure, equipment, natural resources, or property due to its flammability. With expert guidance from the Alaska Fire Science Consortium team and incorporation of the Alaska Fuels Guide, Schmidt’s team was able to determine the flammability of 15 classes of Arctic vegetation. Community feedback was vital in fine-tuning techniques, deciding on map scales, and the ultimate application of the maps.

Supporting Arctic Communities Through Wildfire Risk Maps

Undergraduate at the University of Alaska Anchorage shows early wildfire exposure maps to residents.

Wildfires are an increasing concern for Arctic communities, but Schmidt notes that traditional national datasets often perform poorly in Alaska. Much of the national fire data assumes that vegetation returns to its pre-burn state after just ten years. In Alaska, this assumption is not accurate. Additionally, these datasets are often difficult for communities to access or interpret due to their size and complexity. Understanding them typically requires extensive background knowledge and significant computing power, putting this information out of reach for many local decision-makers. 

To address this gap, Schmidt’s team began by developing wildfire risk maps in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Whitehorse. This product   can be changed on the fly to adapt to community needs (like adding different fuel types). The dataset has proven valuable in many ways. The State of Alaska has adopted the maps to guide planning and create CWPPs. Communities often request customized maps to help plan fuel treatments, evaluate evacuation routes, and identify hazardous vegetation that could carry fires into populated areas. By adapting Jennifer Beverly’s methodology for use in Alaska, Schmidt’s team conducted vulnerability analyses to provide communities with deeper insights into wildfire risks. The maps also allow planners to evaluate the effectiveness of fuel treatments, which can be used to track how mitigation funding is being used and assess how long wildfire hazard and risk.

Surprising Findings

2024 Alaska Wildfire Exposure Maps.

One of the greatest surprises for Schmidt and her collaborators was the success of the Alaska Wildfire Exposure Map. The map revealed areas with high wildfire exposure were in fact more likely to burn, which challenged a prior assumption that burn probability did not reliably predict where fires actually occur. However, these maps performed so well in community applications, that the research is now expanding to include tundra areas. 

This map integrates various data layers, including hazardous vegetation and fuels, wildfire exposure, vegetation data, ecosystems, and landscapes to support community-level decision making. As Schmidt noted, it has helped communities, land managers, and researchers use historical fire data to help identify areas that are more likely to burn, which has supported preparedness planning and risk mitigation. For more information, explore the Alaska Wildfire Exposure Maps 2024 on ArcGIS. 

Emerging Fire Risks Across Alaska’s Landscapes

Illustration of how hazardous fuels capture fuel treatments and wildfire activity outside of Fairbanks, Alaska.

In 2022, tundra areas in Bristol Bay experienced more burning than in the previous 70 years, highlighting a key realization for Schmidt: more landscapes are flammable than we previously assumed. Wildfire risk is not limited to the boreal forest, and tundra ecosystems are increasingly vulnerable as fire behavior changes across Alaska.

Currently, there is a major gap in comprehensive information on structure (ile. building) vulnerability, particularly data that accounts for the building materials and other components that could influence how homes burn. Schmidt notes that since there is no standardized system to categorize structures and their value, this presents a challenge for accurate risk assessment and supporting community preparedness efforts. 

Additionally, Schmidt noted there is an increased need for updated annual land cover data to better assess vulnerability across Alaskan communities. As mentioned, her team has heavily relied on NASA’s ABoVE data, but their maps have not been updated in recent years with the same level of detail or geographic coverage. To help address this gap, Schmidt has built upon existing documentation to further inform the Alaska Wildfire Exposure Maps, and has developed a small-scale vegetation model that can become more scalable, sustainable, and impactful for broader community use. 

Why This Work Matters

Building trust is foundational for any successful collaboration when working between communities and scientists, and watching that trust grow over time has been incredibly rewarding for Schmidt. Community members regularly turn to her team as a trusted source of knowledge and resources, given both their research and broader community work. Schmidt describes herself as a public servant, noting this is the central reason why she does this work. She actively encourages the public to reach out, whether it is by text, call, or email to ask questions or seek advice, and emphasizes she’s happy to help. 

Preparing for a Career in Arctic Science

“Capitalize on available opportunities as early as you can in your academic career” was the overall message shared by Schmidt. She encouraged undergraduate students to not shy away from the more challenging courses or skills, but rather to seek out the classes that will build strong technical foundations. Schmidt emphasized the importance of developing hard skills ranging from statistics to data management as early as possible, highlighting that these skills not only prepare you for a career in science, but particularly Arctic research.  

How the Arctic Data Center Supports Science and Scientists

Participants of an Arctic Data Center data science training course, including Jen Schmidt.

The Arctic Data Center has long supported Arctic scientists in developing their data science skills through our hands-on training opportunities, and Schmidt serves as an example of the effectiveness of our teaching models. In August 2018, she participated in an early iteration of our courses, which had a mixed focus in R and Git/Github called Arctic Data Center Training. She has since expressed appreciation for the experience to learn and regularly encourages many of her graduate students to apply and attend our data science training events when possible. 

Schmidt also noted that archiving her data at the Arctic Data Center has extended the reach and impacts of her research, while helping her discover other datasets relevant to her work. In particular, she highlighted an existing dataset focused on North Pacific and Arctic marine vessel traffic as a game changer. Noting that access to well-documented, discoverable data allows scientists to see what work has already been done and to further build on it rather than duplicating it. She credits the Arctic Data Center team for supporting these efforts and hopes they can continue to contribute impactful research in the Arctic research community.

Written by Nicole Greco and Angie Garcia

Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinators

Cyberinfrastructure Advancements 

Screenshot of the partial data download feature on the Permafrost Discovery Gateway

Throughout the year, our cyberinfrastructure team has continued to work on strengthening our core services for Arctic researchers, from updates to the Arctic Data Center repository to improvements in our data tools, including the portal system. MetacatUI, our client-side web interface, received 6 new upgrades to enhance the user-experience when searching the data repository and navigating data portals like the Permafrost Discovery Gateway. Some of the most anticipated features from those upgrades were the ability to download geospatial data for areas of interest directly from the map (2.33.0), allow for filtering of map features by attribute (2.34.0), and support for copying attributes via reference linking (2.34.0). To learn more about all MetacatUI releases, visit our developer notes, which detail the upgrades that are made and how the user can experience them firsthand on the Arctic Data Center. 

Several of the MetacatUI releases have introduced more customizable features for the community to use. In Metacatui 3.35.0, our developers released the initial version that embedded featured stories from the Local Environmental Observer (LEO) Network directly into the Permafrost Discovery Gateway portal. This allows users to view curated, continuously updated streams of posts with summaries, dates, and links back to the original LEO pages. Recently, this feature was expanded to include updated Virtual Tours made available by the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at Ohio State University along with prominently featured Arctic locations and related datasets on the portal. Additionally, Shiny Apps are now supported in our data portals, allowing for the creation of custom interactive data visualizations. By embedding Shiny Apps directly within a portal page, users can explore datasets in real-time, filter information, and visualize patterns. Together, all three features in the portal complement each other and enrich the user-experience, and can easily be adopted by other groups who are interested in utilizing this tool made available by the Center. The LEO stories are accessible under the Permafrost Observations tab noted in the screenshot below.

In the last few years, the Center has seen an increase in researchers depositing large datasets, and this year was no exception. Our Development Team made it a priority to ensure our cyberinfrastructure can support this massive data growth of 450 TB and over 50 million files. Metacat, which serves as the backend service for the Arctic Data Center repository, played a central role in enabling change at this scale. 

To help manage the cost of storage and maintain access for Arctic researchers and communities, the Arctic Data Center introduced a new policy for storing large multi-terabyte model output datasets. Researchers interested in archiving large model outputs are encouraged to contact Arctic Data Center staff well in advance of publication or reporting deadlines with a statement on the model output’s value to researchers and the community, how the output could be re-used by others, and an estimation of how long you believe the model outputs will be useful. With the release of Metacat 3.1.0, our Development Team introduced significant performance enhancements to support the management of large datasets.

Strengthening Our Mission and Vision 

This year, we prioritized clearly communicating our missions and vision to the Arctic research community and beyond. While our core purpose has remained consistent, the complexity and growth of Arctic research make it essential that our role as a steward of research data is immediately apparent. 

The main step we took was updating our About Us page along with the creation of new one-pagers highlighting key priorities: Promoting National Security, Prosperity, and Welfare; Driving Technological Innovation; and Expanding Opportunities for All Americans. These resources make it either for the community to understand what we do, why it matters, and how we support research and discovery.

Our mission—to help the research community reproducibly preserve and discover all products of NSF-funded science in the Arctic—continues to guide everything we do. By emphasizing our mission more clearly, we strengthen our connection with the community and provide a transparent framework for how we continue to enable high-quality, open, and reusable Arctic research.

Enhancing Our Website for the Community

In the latter half of the year, we introduced several updates to our website to improve usability and better support the Arctic research community. Our homepage was redesigned to more clearly highlight our mission of enabling open access and long-term preservation of Arctic data to support science, collaboration, and informed responses to change. Visitors can now more easily explore data by discipline and see recent submissions, submit datasets, explore training curriculum, explore our latest news features, and find upcoming opportunities hosted by the Center.

Additionally, we updated our About Data Portals page to better showcase the flexibility and functionality of our customizable data portals. These portals allow researchers, lab groups, and organizations to aggregate datasets from the Arctic Data Center, create interactive maps, embed visualizations, and build custom pages to highlight publications, photos, collaborators, and more. With enhanced metrics and filtering tools, users can explore, share, and communicate their research more effectively.

Lastly, we revised our Data Submission Guidelines page to present NSF Office of Polar Programs and Arctic Data Center requirements for submitting metadata, datasets, and derived data products clearer. Our Data Preservation and Working with Data pages now follow a similar easy to navigate layout. Together, these updates make the Arctic Data Center website a more intuitive, informative, and effective resource for the community, supporting the discovery, sharing, and preservation of Arctic research data.

Data Science Training Courses 

Every year our team looks forward to welcoming new faces of Arctic researchers who visit for our data science trainings, both in-person and online. In 2025, we were able to support 56 participants to learn and expand their expertise in R and Python through our courses. However, interest in these trainings continues to grow as we received 180 applicants across all courses. For each training, our outreach team wrote a reflectionary piece capturing key events from the week. You can explore those pieces here: 

• Teaching Data Science with Real Applications: Recapping the Arctic Data Center’s 2025 Scalable Computing in Python Training
• Empowering Arctic Researchers with Reproducible Data Science Skills: Key Takeaways from the Arctic Data Center’s February 2025 Virtual Training
• Strengthening Data Practices in Arctic Research: A Recap of the Arctic Data Center’s January 2025 Data Management Training

We deeply appreciate the opportunity to support our community through these trainings. While demand always exceeds our available capacity, our outreach team works hard to ensure each participant has a meaningful learning experience. We remain committed to expanding opportunities to ensure more Arctic researchers can strengthen their data science skills. 

Meetings We Attended

• Toolik All Scientists Meeting

Our Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinators, Nicole Greco and Angie Garcia kicked off the year by attending the Toolik All Scientists Meeting in Santa Barbara, California where we held a workshop on Ethical Principles for Open-Access Data. The workshop began with an introduction to the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and CARE (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics) Principles, followed by a breakout activity, and ending with a full room discussion and wrap-up Q&A session. During the breakout activity, participants examined two case studies: one where a research team worked on Indigenous lands but not with community members and were met with negativity, and another where a research team worked directly with Indigenous community members and were welcomed onto their lands. Participants were tasked with considering the responsibilities that researchers and communities have to ensure ethical data collection, preservation, and use.

• ASSW/ICARP IV/PECWS

Participants and organizers of PECWS. Photo Credit: Lauren Lipuma, CIRES, CU Boulder.

Greco and Garcia also attended Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW), the International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP) IV, and the Polar Early Career World Summit (PECWS) from March 20-28th in Boulder, Colorado. Highlights from the conference were featured in our blog post: “Sharing Knowledge and Shaping the Future of Research at Arctic Science Summit Week: An Arctic Data Center Perspective”. We were especially excited to host workshops for our collaborators Navigating the New Arctic, the Polar Early Career Community Office, the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists, and others during the conference.

• Science Advisory Board Meeting 

We held an in-person Science Advisory Board (SAB) meeting from May 19-20th in Santa Barbara, where we discussed updates at the Arctic Data Center, a vision for our renewal proposal, and future directions for our cyberinfrastructure, data curation, and outreach teams. The meeting prioritized feedback and discussion and concluded with a writeup of recommendations for the Arctic Data Center from the SAB members. Learn more about our Advisory Board members here.

• Earth Science Information Partners Annual Meeting 

Members of our software developer team and Matt Jones, Director of the Arctic Data Center, gathered in Seattle, Washington from July 22-25 to showcase the progress made on the Data Quality Assessment tool at the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Annual Meeting, themed Innovation to Impact. Developer Jeanette Clark noted: “ESIP is always great for finding collaborations and staying up to date with what the community is doing. It was exciting to share our progress with the data quality assessment and to get inspiration for ways we can improve it from other groups that are working in similar areas.”

Clark and other developers across the team continue to make ongoing improvements to the Data Quality tool. Developed in collaboration with DataONE, it is intended to help users understand how the FAIR suite evaluates metadata based on these four principles: Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, Reusability. The tool scores each dataset and indicates which elements of the metadata meet the evaluation criteria. Ultimately, it serves as a guide for researchers to identify where improvements can be made to strengthen their metadata. To learn more, explore here. 

• Greenland Science Week

Greenland Science Week Closing Plenary. Photo Credit: Angie Garcia

From November 10-14th, Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinator Garcia, visited Nuuk, Greenland for Greenland Science Week and other community events in collaboration with the QGreenland and DataONE projects. Many of the presentations and informal conversations echoed the meeting’s theme: All Eyes on Greenland. This week offered valuable insight into the research priorities of the research community and Greenlanders, and how partnership and open science can support Greenland. Garcia met with researchers, local organizations, and other projects to discuss data needs and potential collaborations which was valuable for the cross-project presence at the meeting. 

Spotlighting our Collaborators and Datasets  

In 2025, we reinvigorated our News and Features page with monthly Dataset and Collaborator Highlights, as well as recaps of our data science training courses and workshop experiences, totaling 22 posts. Our Dataset Highlights serve two purposes: to highlight the incredible work of the researchers who submit data to us and showcase the role the Arctic Data Center plays in preservation and discovery of Arctic data. Featured datasets covered topics from permafrost monitoring using artificial intelligence to how Alaskan Native Elders define successful aging. This wide range of topics allowed our community to learn more about the diverse disciplines and data types of the 7,804 datasets housed by the Arctic Data Center.

Our new Collaborator Highlight series explores the relationships between the Arctic Data Center and partner organizations like the Permafrost Discovery Gateway, Cyber2A project, QGreenland, Navigating the New Arctic, DataONE, and Toolik Field Station. These Highlights often intersect with our Dataset Highlights, like the feature on Elias Manos’ permafrost dataset who works with the Permafrost Discovery Gateway and the feature on Dr. Laura Gough’s research exploring small mammal impact, who works closely with Toolik Field Station. 

Lastly, we’ve revived our monthly newsletters that provide updates about Arctic Data Center and collaborator events. You can see past newsletters here and subscribe to future newsletters here.

Looking Forward to 2026

As we look ahead, the Arctic Data Center remains committed to fostering collaboration, strengthening the data science skills of the Arctic research community, and supporting the rapidly evolving landscape of Arctic research. With the continued growth of Arctic science, the need for data preservation and stewardship is more important than ever. We are excited for the opportunities that the coming year will bring.

In 2026, we will offer only one of our data science training courses, Reproducible Approaches to Arctic Research Using R, held on Zoom. As for all of our training courses, all curriculum will be openly available on our website following the course. We are also preparing to launch our biennial community survey  in the coming months to gather input from the Arctic research community. Your feedback is essential in helping us improve our tools, services, and overall support for NSF-funded Arctic research products. The survey is anonymous and we encourage all community members to share their perspectives with us.

Entering 2026, we’re inspired by the evolving needs of the Arctic research community and energized by new opportunities to innovate. As the Arctic continues to change, the Center will continue to prioritize long-term data stewardship for our research community to trust. We sincerely thank all the researchers who have worked with our teams to share and preserve their data, and we look forward to another year of collaboration, learning, and shared progress together.

Written by Nicole Greco and Angie Garcia

Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinators

Toolik Field Station is located in the northern foothills of the Brooks Range and provides access to a wide variety of ecosystems in Arctic Alaska. Photo by Jason Stuckey/TFS.

Strengthening Arctic Research Through Open Data and Collaboration

Toolik Field Station has long been a hub for Arctic research. Located in Alaska’s Brooks Range and operated by the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks with support from the U.S. National Science Foundation, Toolik hosts hundreds of scientists each year who come to study Arctic ecosystems, biodiversity, and the unique landscapes of the tundra.

The Arctic Data Center and Toolik share a common goal: to make Arctic science more open, connected, and useful to the people who live in, study, and care for these environments. Over the years, we’ve worked together to make it easier for researchers to manage, share, and preserve the data collected at the station.

Making Toolik Data Easier to Find and Use

A major piece of this collaboration is the Toolik Data Portal, a dedicated webpage hosted by the Arctic Data Center that aggregates data collected at the field station. The portal gathers long-term monitoring datasets, ecological experiments, and interdisciplinary studies that span everything from summertime soil measurements to long-term meteorological data.

Scientists from Toolik’s GIS and remote sensing team fly a research drone to collect high-resolution imagery for spatial analysis of a thermokarst land deformation, caused by permafrost thaw. Photo by Randy Fulweber.

Before the portal existed, Toolik data were scattered across many locations and not easily findable. Now, users can browse and download datasets through a single searchable interface, complete with detailed metadata documentation and links to related research. The result is a resource that not only preserves Toolik’s scientific record but also helps new projects build on decades of existing work.

The portal currently holds 556 datasets, including baseline monitoring data collected by Toolik’s Spatial and Environmental Data Center and continues to grow as new datasets are submitted. For example, the ADC is working with Toolik to archive the station’s many spatial datasets, like lake bathymetry or drone imagery. The portal also lists hundreds of publications that have come from Toolik scientists. Each addition represents a small piece of Toolik’s history, capturing the efforts of field teams who brave Arctic conditions to collect high-quality data year after year.

Connecting with the Research Community

The Arctic Data Center’s collaboration with Toolik extends well beyond the portal. Every few years, the Toolik community comes together for the All Scientists Meetings, gatherings that bring researchers, students, and staff together to share updates, collaborate, and plan for the future. 

The Arctic Data Center Outreach Team was lucky enough to participate and host a workshop during the January 2025 meeting in Santa Barbara, CA. The workshop centered around Ethical Principles for Open-Access Data and included an introduction to the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and CARE (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics) principles for responsible research. Attendees were given two case studies and participated in small group discussions centered around data accessibility and ethics. Workshops like this educate and motivate researchers to explore the ethics behind their data and better prepare them for submission to the Arctic Data Center.

Bridging Fieldwork and Data Management

Beyond workshops, the collaboration between the Arctic Data Center and Toolik Field Station helps researchers connect the dots between fieldwork and long-term data preservation. Many Toolik projects collect data under challenging conditions and over long timescales, which makes planning for data management especially important.

Through training courses and one-on-one support, the Arctic Data Center helps Toolik researchers incorporate data management planning, metadata collection, and documentation into their data collection routines. By treating data management as an essential part of fieldwork, not just an end-of-project task, researchers can more easily prepare their datasets for publication and ensure that the information they gather remains useful for future studies.

Environmental Data Center technician Mayra Meléndez González troubleshoots sensors on an eddy covariance tower near Toolik Field Station in the winter. Photo by Joseph Franich.

Amplifying Research Impact and Data Reuse

Making Toolik data openly available through the Arctic Data Center has far-reaching effects. The portal’s datasets are cited and reused by other researchers, and users can find and build on Toolik data without needing to track down individual investigators or request access to old records.

This openness leads to more collaborative work, more reproducible science, and greater visibility for the researchers who share their data. Each dataset published through the portal contributes to a larger understanding of Arctic systems and helps spark new questions, experiments, and discoveries across the research community.

Looking Ahead

The collaboration between the Arctic Data Center and Toolik Field Station is a model for how open data, community engagement, and thoughtful stewardship can strengthen research in the Arctic. By connecting fieldwork with long-term preservation, providing training and support, and making datasets widely accessible, this partnership ensures that the knowledge collected at Toolik continues to inform science for years to come. As the portal grows and new generations of researchers join the station, the story of Toolik’s data is still being written and will be more connected, more discoverable, and more impactful than ever.

Explore the Toolik Field Station Data Portal

Written by Nicole Greco

Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinator

Ingmar Nitze during an aerial survey campaign.
Photo credit: Carl Stadie, 2024.

Background and Research Expertise

Dr. Ingmar Nitze has always considered himself a “geo-geek” with a passion for all things geospatial, and naturally gravitated toward the field of physical geography for his studies. During his academic journey, he developed a strong interest in geoinformatics and remote sensing, tools that would later become central to Nitze’s research. As a student, Nitze worked for a satellite company called RapidEye from 2009-2011, which shaped his focus on processing large quantities of Earth observation data. His first research position, based in Cork, Ireland, focused on temperate agricultural systems, offering valuable experience in applying geospatial techniques to real-world environmental challenges. In 2014, a new opportunity led him north to the world of Arctic research. Since then, Nitze has been immersed in studying permafrost and the changing dynamics of Arctic landscapes as a PhD Student and later postdoctoral researcher at the Alfred Wegener Institute.

Ingmar Nitze carrying drilling gear through the tundra in West Alaska. Photo credit: Guido Grosse, 2016.

Nitze’s research focuses on permafrost, or ground that stays frozen for at least two consecutive years. He explains that permafrost can be composed of frozen soil, rock, and even organic material that stores large amounts of carbon. The concern is that as the Arctic warms, this frozen ground starts to thaw, potentially releasing greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, which can further accelerate climate change.

Nitze further explains that although permafrost covers vast areas of the Northern hemisphere, it’s still poorly represented in current climate models largely due to data sparsity, especially on the different ways permafrost is thawing. He explains that while some gradual thaw processes (e.g. thickening of the seasonal thaw layer) are beginning to be incorporated into models, rapid changes like sudden ground collapse (thaw slumps) or shifts in Arctic lakes aren’t yet well understood or quantified. Nitze’s goal is to fill this knowledge gap: to better understand how permafrost is reacting to climate change, how it’s thawing, and what that means for future climate feedbacks. He hopes that improving how these processes are represented in climate models will put us in a much better position to predict and plan for what’s coming.

Dataset Highlight

The DARTS dataset maps areas of thawing ground, or retrogressive thaw slumps, across Arctic and Subarctic regions. These features were identified using satellite imagery and an automated deep learning method. The imagery, taken between 2021 and 2023, covers ~1.6 million square kilometers, with more frequent data available with higher temporal coverage (2018-2023) for especially active sites like Banks Island and Peel Plateau in Canada, and Novaya Zemlya in Siberia. More than 43,000 thaw slumps and related erosion features were mapped, many more than once.

Oblique aerial photo of the Selawik Slump in West Alaska. Photo credit: Ingmar Nitze, 2014

Nitze’s work combines high-resolution satellite imagery, at an impressive 3-meter spatial resolution, with a variety of other geospatial data sources such as digital elevation models and coarser-resolution grid maps. These different layers of data are pre-processed using remote sensing techniques and then fed into an AI-based image segmentation model.

The model has been trained using examples of known thaw slump locations as well as areas without them. Once trained the model is able to automatically scan and identify potential thaw slumps across vast Arctic regions. However, the input dataset contains terabytes of imagery, making it nearly impossible to analyze manually. The model’s custom code helps automate the processing workflow, enabling this large-scale analysis. Post-processing refines the model’s outputs, correcting many false positives or errors. To support transparency and reuse, the dataset includes comprehensive metadata explaining the source and meaning of the data. The final product was published in the Arctic Data Center where it’s freely available for other researchers, policymakers, and the public to explore:

• Ingmar Nitze, Konrad Heidler, Nina Nesterova, Jonas Küpper, Emma Schütt, Tobias Hölzer, Sophia Barth, Mark J. Lara, Anna Liljedahl, & Guido Grosse. (2025). DARTS: Multi-year database of AI detected retrogressive thaw slumps (RTS) in hotspots of the circum-arctic permafrost region – v1.2. Arctic Data Center. doi:10.18739/A22B8VD7C.

Retrogressive thaw slump at Cape Blossom, Baldwin Peninsula, Alaska. Photo credit: Ingmar Nitze, 2024.

Technological Innovations

When asked about future technological innovations , Nitze notes that recent advances in AI have made powerful tools more accessible to researchers working with large-scale environmental data. Some of today’s models have already been trained on large datasets, giving them a built-in understanding of what the Earth looks like. Nitze explains that scientists can fine-tune models for automation and develop code more efficiently. Looking ahead, he hopes to see improvements in satellite sensor technology. New sensors now offer higher spatial and temporal resolution and could be more available to researchers. For example, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors can capture detailed images regardless of cloud cover or sunlight, making them especially valuable for monitoring remote Arctic regions year-round.

Aft-view over the Polar-6 airplane flying over the Mackenzie Delta, Canada. Photo credit: Ingmar Nitze, 2023.

Working in the Arctic

Much of the Arctic landscape is vast and remote compared to the rest of the world, making it challenging and costly to researchers. As Nitze explains it, this remoteness leads to sparseness of data, which is where tools such as remote sensing help Arctic scientists fill in the gap.
An advantage of the Arctic is its proximity to the North Pole, where many polar orbiting satellites are consistently collecting data at a higher temporal resolution. However, atmospheric conditions are not always ideal because frequent cloud coverage or lack of coverage from snow and other weather conditions make it difficult to collect good data. Summer in the Arctic is the only time researchers can effectively observe permafrost change as the landscape thaws and changes most rapidly.

Use of AI-Based Tools in Arctic Research

In Nitze’s experience, integrating AI-based tools into the DARTS dataset made it possible to scale up the analyses and cover larger regions. Detecting which features were functional and identifying emerging patterns added to the excitement of this work. For example, detections of the muddy slump floor surrounded by the original tundra vegetation helped improve contrast and better detect the active retrogressive thaw slumps. The model even helped detect features and objects in regions the team was not aware of, which really surprised and intrigued Nitze. However, the main challenge was determining when the model’s performance was ready for publication since models are never perfect.

As the DARTS dataset integrates AI-based tools, Nitze emphasizes that its value will continue to grow as models become more accurate and better trained, which will only help in identifying and monitoring permafrost changes. So far, it has improved the detection, monitoring, and prediction of permafrost changes, but Nitze notes the DARTS model’s potential could extend further. As more data becomes available AI models will become better in detecting patterns that the human eye may not be able to manually account for.

Collaborating with the Arctic Data Center

Nitze raves about his experience working with the Arctic Data Center and the Permafrost Discovery Gateway (PDG) teams. He notes how exciting it is to be part of such a large, collaborative effort, and gives credit to Anna Liljedahl, PI of the PDG, for doing an excellent job of bringing teams together and coordinating across groups. He explains that the Arctic Data Center has been “super helpful, and Matt (Jones) and Justin (Kadi) are very responsive and good at taking care of organizing the data and making good metadata”. He goes on to say that having a team that truly cares about making data accessible, usable, and properly managed makes a big difference, especially for large, complex datasets like those often produced in Arctic research.

The DARTS dataset now contains two layers on the PDG portal: one showing the area coverage of retrogressive thaw slumps (in m2) and another showing the outlines of each retrogressive thaw slump, filtered by year from 2018 to 2023. Publication of the DARTS layer would not have been possible without the development work and collaboration between Shirly Stephen, Rushiraj Nenuji, Alyona Kosobokova, and Justin Kadi of the Arctic Data Center and PDG teams.

Screenshot of the DARTS dataset in the Permafrost Discovery Gateway portal showing the area coverage of retrogressive thaw slumps in red (m2) and another showing the outlines of each retrogressive thaw slump, filtered by year from 2018 to 2023.

Encouraging Future Scientists

Nitze’s immediate advice for students is simple: ask for internships in research. By reaching out to research groups, organizations, institutes, and others, you can open up many unexpected doors, a sentiment often echoed by other researchers. At the Alfred Wegener Institute, where Nitze is a postdoctoral researcher, he’s seen many students begin their journey with an internship and later return as employees, PhD candidates, or research collaborators.

Beyond mentorship, Nitze notes the power in engaging with open data platforms. He points to PANGAEA, a data publisher for Earth and Environmental Science as a strong resource. While it operates differently than the Arctic Data Center, engaging across both systems could be helpful for emerging scientists. Collaborating through various platforms and teams helps strengthen the broader Arctic research community and ensures more people can access, share, and benefit from the data.

Written by Angie Garcia and Nicole Greco

Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinators

Dr. Lilly Parker at the airport in Anchorage, posing with a taxidermied polar bear, and thinking about how Unangan ancestors may have responded to the presence of bears in Unalaska. Photo credit: C.F. West.

Dr. Lilly Parker is a research scientist at the Laboratories of Molecular Anthropology and Microbiome Research (LMAMR) at the University of Oklahoma where she focuses on ancient DNA, mammalian diversity, conservation genomics, and human-mammal relationships. Her work in the Arctic began during her NSF Office of Polar Programs postdoctoral fellowship at LMAMR where she worked to understand the mysterious presence of polar bears in Unalaska, Alaska approximately 5,000 years ago. She notes that this work expands upon Dr. Catherine West’s Unalaska Sea Ice project at Boston University, which examines the environmental and cultural impacts of Aleutian Island neoglacial periods. 

Parker’s academic background and training lies in population genetics and systematics of mammals, specializing in ancient DNA laboratory methods and bioinformatics. She completed her dissertation at the Center for Conservation Genomics (CCG) in the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, where the interdisciplinary environment exposed her to a broad range of research approaches. After her doctoral work, Parker sought out opportunities to integrate an anthropological perspective into her work that explores the intricate and dynamic relationships between humans and their environments—particularly human interactions with other mammals. She explains that collaborating with her mentors, Dr. Catherine West and Dr. Courtney Hofman, has allowed her to develop a holistic understanding of the significance of the presence of bears in Unalaska by weaving together cultural, ecological, and genetic components.

Dataset Highlight

Map highlighting the positions of two archaeological sites: Margaret Bay (ca. 4700 rcyr BP) and Amaknak Bridge (ca. 2500 rcyr BP). Bear icons indicate possible bear remains at Margaret Bay and an unidentified bear species at Amaknak Bridge. From Parker et al., 2025.

Giving context to the project, Parker explains that in the early 2000s, archaeologists uncovered bear remains at two sites on Unalaska island: Margaret Bay and Amaknak Bridge. These discoveries were both surprising and significant given the absence of paleontological or historical records of bears inhabiting Unalaska. The island lies approximately 500 miles south of the historically documented southernmost range of polar bears and about 60 miles west of Unimak Island, where the nearest existing brown bear population exists. The remains, estimated to be between 4,700 and 2,500 years old, may suggest that sea ice reached the Aleutian Islands during the Neoglacial period, a time marked by cooler conditions compared to the temperate climate of the region today. Parker notes that “this finding is especially intriguing because there is no documented history of Unangax̂ (Aleut) communities, who have lived in the Aleutians for at least 9,000 years, hunting or utilizing bear products”. 

The goal of the project is to use zooarchaeological methods to determine whether the uncovered bear remains belonged to polar or brown bears, which Parker notes is a difficult distinction because their skeletons are so similar. She explains that identifying species and understanding the context of their presence can shed light on past climate conditions and determine how they impacted the complex relationships between humans, animals, and the environment.

This collaborative research involved publication of a dataset at the Arctic Data Center:

• Lillian Parker. (2024). A zooarchaeological analysis of bear (Ursus spp.) remains from two archaeological sites in Unalaska, Alaska (4700 BP – 2500 BP). Arctic Data Center. doi:10.18739/A25T3G219.

And an associated publication in Nature Scientific Reports: 

• Polar bears and expanding sea ice in the Mid Holocene Aleutian Islands, Alaska.

The study confirmed the presence of both polar and brown bears at the Margaret Bay site, with age profiles and butchery patterns suggesting that the bears were harvested locally. Parker explains that the expansion of sea ice during the Neoglacial period likely facilitated the movement of polar and brown bears to the Unalaska region. While species identification was confirmed for a portion of the recovered bones through morphological analysis, further efforts are underway to analyze DNA sequence data. This genetic analysis aims to determine the species of the remaining specimens and identify the modern populations to which these bears are most closely related. 

Methods and Impact

Dr. Catherine F. West working in the collections at the Museum of the Aleutians with the Executive Director Dr. Virginia Hatfield. Shown are harpoon toolkits used by Unangan ancestors for hunting on the open water. Photo credit: L. Parker.

The team used zooarchaeological methods that included comparative morphology, assessment of butchery patterns, and age estimation. Parker further explains that ancient DNA sequencing is currently allowing for sequencing and analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear geonomes to determine bear species and population, relatedness among individuals, effective population size, and demographic trends. 

The overarching goal of the project is to understand the environmental and cultural impacts of neoglacial cooling in Unalaska. Parker’s role is providing a lens into the context and implications of the presence of butchered bear remains in archaeological contexts, aiming to understand how humans were interacting with bears and how the bears themselves were affected. She explains that “… in many regions where polar bear and brown bear ranges have overlapped, the two species hybridized… this could have occurred on the Alaska Peninsula as well”.

When asked about the most exciting part of the project, Parker found it difficult to choose just one. She explained how privileged she felt to work with remains that are a part of Unangan cultural heritage: “The bear remains are exciting to local community members because the presence of huge terrestrial carnivores like bears in Unalaska is difficult to imagine”. She reported that the best part of the research so far was traveling to Unalaska and meeting with community members, as well as teaching students at Camp Qungaayux what they have learned about bears and about the methods they used to come to their conclusions. 

A Love for Collaboration

Kaylee Tatum teaching “the Mystery of the Margaret Bay Bears’, a lesson describing the results of this research that she developed with Dr. Parker, at Camp Quanayuux, the Unangan summer culture camp. Photo credit: L. Parker.

Parker has a deep love for mentoring students, doing public outreach events, and working with her collaborators, stating that she “loves being a part of the journey of discovery and learning”. In fact, when asked what advice she would give to young scientists or students interested in pursuing a career in Arctic research, Parker advised choosing the best group of collaborators you can find. She emphasized the joy she gets from working with a group of dedicated professionals who all get to learn from each other. While Parker brings a background in population genetics, systematics, and ancient DNA of mammals, her collaborators bring expertise in zooarchaeology, cultural and molecular anthropology, and chemical ecology. By combining these perspectives and working in interdisciplinary teams, Parker says the group can “piece together a much more complete picture than any one discipline could provide on its own”.

Written by Nicole Greco

Community Engagement & Outreach Coordinator

Graphic depicting the various data repositories across the network. Graphic created by Matt Jones.

DataONE is a federation of international data repositories that expand access to Earth and environmental data through enhanced search and discovery tools. By advancing data interoperability, reproducibility, and long-term preservation, DataONE ensures that valuable research remains discoverable well into the future. Its community supports researchers, educators, and the public in exploring and sharing knowledge about our planet and the environment that sustains it.

Historically, DataONE was funded by the National Science Foundation from 2009 to 2019, after which its management transitioned to the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at UC Santa Barbara. Since then, DataONE has continued as a community driven project supported by a sustainability model designed to build community, advance software infrastructure, foster key innovations and diversify funding streams through a fee-for service-model. To learn more about how DataONE can support your research, explore their available services.

Why is DataONE important to the Arctic Data Center?

DataONE connects independent repositories, also known as member nodes, into one searchable network which includes the Arctic Data Center. This means the data in the Arctic Data Center is indexed and discoverable through DataONE’s catalog alongside other data from other repositories, which expands the visibility and accessibility of Arctic data to those who might be unfamiliar with it or those who are working with global data. 

Additionally, the Arctic Data Center software infrastructure and standards directly result from those built for DataONE, making all features and new advancements made within the network accessible to the users of this community. Some of these key features available to Arctic Data Center users include: 

• Thematic data portals: Curated collections of data meant to showcase the work completed by your lab, research team, field station, or organization
• Customizable, interactive, and shareable map views with web-ready geospatial visualizations: Making spatial data such as LiDAR easier to explore
• File hierarchy support and display: Organize datasets in structures that are easier to access
• FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) Metadata Assessment Reports for datasets: Helps ensure data meets FAIR standards
• Comprehensive, standards-based metadata forms: Support consistent data documentation
• Data replication and data preservation: Safeguard datasets for long-term accessibility
• Custom DOIs: Support data citations and linking

Building Community Through Conferences, Community Calls, and Collaborative Software Development 

A presentation delivered to field stations about DataONE at the 2023 OBFS Annual Meeting in Costa Rica. Photo Credit: Angie Garcia.

One of the pillars of DataONE’s sustainability model is continuously building community within the network. This is accomplished through their global  network that brings together researchers, information managers, librarians, data authors, users, and diverse stakeholders. By connecting these individuals and organizations, DataONE facilitates knowledge exchange, collaboration, and sharing of best practices in data management and open science. Community engagement occurs through various mechanisms such as community calls, in-person meetings at various conferences, and collaborative open source software development projects like Metacat and MetacatUI.

This November, representatives of their team will be in Nuuk, Greenland at Greenland Science Week highlighting advancements from DataONE  to connect repositories that support Greenland-based research into the network through the integration of schema.org. Some of these include QGreenland, the Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring (GEM) and Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) Dataverse. To learn more about their upcoming meetings, join their Slack channel to stay up to date. 

Impact of DataONE 

DataONE advances open science and scientific collaboration through its mission and has helped projects further expand their impact. Some of these supported projects include the Permafrost Discovery Gateway (PDG), QGreenland, the Distributed Biological Observatory (DBO), State of Alaska Salmon and People (SASAP), and others. By integrating their data into DataONE through a data portal or the data catalog, these partnerships increase data visibility and accessibility, enabling researchers worldwide to discover, reproduce, and build upon available resources. By collaborating across projects, DataONE has amplified their global reach of data and helped the Arctic Data Center’s cyberinfrastructure remain robust and valuable to the Arctic researcher community.  

Explore Arctic-Relevant Portals in the DataONE Network

Toolik Field Station

This portal provides access to datasets collected as part of the Toolik Field Station program.

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QGreenland

The QGreenland Portal is designed to help you identify additional data from the QGreenland project.

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Distributed Biological Observatory

The Distributed Biological Observatory (DBO) is a multi-agency, ship-based research program studying biological responses to rapid physical changes in the Arctic marine ecosystem.

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Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring (GEM)

GEM is an integrated monitoring and long-term research programme on ecosystems and climate change effects in the Arctic.

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Written by Angie Garcia

Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinator