Principal Investigator Dr. Howard Epstein shares insights on how buildings affect ground temperature and permafrost thaw at sites across Utqiaġvik in a meeting at Ilisaġvik College on May 27, 2026. (Courtesy: Ilisaġvik College)

Research Notes
By Howard Epstein, PhD | Oct 2026  

How do Urban Heat Islands manifest in the Arctic?

An urban heat island (UHI) is a metropolitan area that is significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas because buildings, roads, and other human modifications to the landscape alter how heat is absorbed and retained. Prior studies in Utqiaġvik, Alaska found a minimally significant heat island effect in summer and a more prominent effect (~2 °C) in the winter.  To understand the dynamics of urban heating at fine spatio-temporal scales, we established a network of micrometeorological sensor arrays to continuously measure ground temperature, ground moisture, air temperature, wind speed/direction, and solar radiation at three locations around town (hospital, utilities, residential) and one tundra site (Barrow Environmental Observatory) outside of town.  Looking at four years of data (2022-2025), our results show a very strong urban heat island effect around infrastructure down to approximately 50-65 cm depth that varies by aspect (location around the building) and how the building was constructed. Averaged across all sites, summer air temperatures were 3.8 °C greater in the urban settings compared to the tundra site, while near-surface ground temperatures (at 10cm depth) were an average of 2.5 °C greater in the urban settings. Summer air temperatures were​ 3.8 °C greater in urban settings compared to the tundra site​, while urban near-surface ground temperatures were an average of 2.5 °C greater.  Interestingly, at most urban locations, temperatures at greater depths (e.g., below ~65 cm) were substantially colder than corresponding depths at the tundra site, possibly due to heat lost to cold ground directly beneath the buildings.  Ground temperatures across depths varied by site, as well as locations within sites. Permafrost thaw was generally deeper at urban sites, though again with some variation based on building aspect. The research team provided site-specific data and analysis to the community. The work was conducted by UVA PhD candidate Mirella Shaban, who will be defending her dissertation on November 20.  In September, we installed ten new sets of ground temperature and moisture monitoring equipment at five locations across town, with the goal of understanding the impact of ground moisture on permafrost stability.  At each of the sites, one set of sensors is installed in an area that remains relatively dry and one in a nearby area that accumulates surface water.

Mirella Shaban (second from right) participates in the closing panel at the 2026 Navigating the New Arctic Annual Community Meeting, Sept. 15-17 in Fairbanks, Alaska. A PhD candidate in Environmental Sciences at UVA, Mirella will be defending her dissertation on Nov. 20, 2026.
Conference Notes By Hannah Bradley, PhD | Sep 2026

UVA team goes to Fairbanks for the Navigating the New Arctic Annual Meeting

The UVA Arctic Research Center (UVA-ARC) team had the opportunity to share our research findings with national and international colleagues at the Navigating the New Arctic Annual Community Meeting in Fairbanks on September 15-17. We were also able to spend time with some of our Utqiaġvik collaborators who were in town for the meeting.  The grant that first brought our UVA-ARC team together was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Navigating the New Arctic program, which was launched in 2016 as one of NSF’s Ten Big Ideas. The NNA Community Office was created in 2021. Through its annual meeting and other activities, it has become a valuable resource for exchanging knowledge and ideas with Indigenous colleagues and communities and other NNA research projects working in Alaska and beyond.  The NNA Community Office has become a valuable resource for exchanging knowledge and ideas with Arctic communities and other NNA research projects.  During this year’s meeting, PI Howard Epstein organized a session on “Resilience in Arctic Infrastructure-Environment Interactions,” which included presentations by our UVA team and researchers investigating similar topics in Kongignak, Mekoryuk, and Chevak, Alaska, as well as Arctic-wide.   UVA postdoc Valentina Ekimova presented our most recent findings showing the importance of snow management for permafrost stability. PhD candidate Mirella Shaban previewed results from her upcoming dissertation on micrometeorological sensing and low-cost air quality monitoring in Utqiaġvik.UVA postdoc social scientist Hannah Bradley gave a presentation on the historical context of big infrastructural changes in Utqiagvik, like the utilidor in the 1980s. Research about infrastructure must have a social infrastructure of relationships and collaborations as well! We were happy to spend time in Fairbanks with longtime friends and colleagues! 
Field Notes

NSF project wraps up by sharing back

By Jana Peirce | June 2026
UVA postdoc Cherí Johnson shares insights from her research on the challenges of navigating between Indigenous and Western natural science knowledge systems during a panel on co-production at the Arctic ACTION workshop in Utqiaġvik, Alaska. Other panelists (from left): Charla Koozaata of Sivuqaq (Gambell), Alaska, Mayor Asi Toovak of Utqiaġvik, and Rebecca Lee, PhD (Natural Resources Canada). (Credit: Chris Maio)

While our Utqiaġvik research continues through the SNOWPAC project, funded by the UVA Environmental Institute, we capped off our NSF Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) project with a week of meetings and presentations in May to share research results with project partners and members of the public in Utqiaġvik. Our visit coincided with the Arctic ACTION Workshop, where members of the UVA-ARC team presented a keynote talk, participated on several panels, and hosted a community dinner.The NNA project, Understanding the Changing Natural-Built Landscape in an Arctic Community: An integrated sensor network in Utqiaġvik, Alaska, started with three key objectives: 1) to understand the interactions between infrastructure and permafrost landscapes in an Arctic city; 2) to apply that learning to design guidelines for improved management of an urban environment; and 3) to study how researchers and residents communicate across disciplines and cultures to co-produce knowledge that benefits communities and informs science.The team’s goal in wrapping up the five-year project was to provide our partners in Utqiaġvik with site-specific data, insights, and design strategies for managing infrastructure on permafrost in the context of a warming Arctic. As a first step, we met online with City Mayor Asisaun Toovak back in March to present overall project takeaways and student-developed conceptual designs for the Imaiqsaun Road Cemetery, which the city plans to expand while also addressing significant permafrost thaw and drainage issues at existing gravesites. Mayor Toovak suggested an in-person presentation to the cemetery's volunteer gravediggers to get their input during the team's May visit to Utqiaġvik   After sharing their findings, the project team asked: Are these useful? What would you like more information on? And, what type of report or deliverable would be most useful? To encourage public dialog about cemetery remediation and expansion options, the mayor suggested tabloid-size printouts of slides to share with stakeholders, a poster that could be displayed at City Hall, and an in-person presentation to the cemetery's volunteer gravediggers to get their input during the team's upcoming visit to Utqiaġvik.
The meeting between gravediggers and researchers took place on May 27 in the City Council Chambers and was one of the highlights of the team's week in Utqiaġvik. During a panel discussion at the Arctic ACTION Workshop later that week, Mayor Toovak described the interaction as an "Aha" moment where you could see real knowledge exchange and co-production taking place. The scientists in the room recognized the gravediggers as the real permafrost experts.  The meeting with city gravediggers was just one of many during the project’s capstone visit to Utqiaġvik. The team also presented project results and design concepts at Ilisaġvik College, Taġiuġmiullu Nunamiullu Housing Authority, Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital, and the Barrow Utilities & Electrical Cooperative Inc. (BUECI) board of directors meeting.    UVA graduate students Mirella Shaban and MacKenzie Nelson were invited back to share their work on water and air quality monitoring with NSB public health nurses and the water treatment team at BUECI, and postdoc Valentina Ekimova was asked to conduct aquatic sampling at the city’s drinking water lagoon.Participating in the Arctic ACTION workshop gave UVA researchers an opportunity to share their findings about snow and water management for permafrost stability more broadly and to learn from Indigenous representatives from other Arctic and near-Arctic coastal communities facing similar challenges to Utqiaġvik. Organized by the NNA ACTION project at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the May 28-31 event brought researchers from multiple universities and agencies together with community members from Utqiaġvik, Point Lay, Gambell, Hooper Bay, St. Paul, and Newtok/Mertarvik, Alaska, and Tuktoyaktuk, NWT, Canada.The workshop’s goal was to move from understanding change toward taking action by strengthening relationships and identifying practical, locally relevant solutions that advance community resilience and Arctic science. Howard Epstein and Matthew Jull presented the UVA team's work on "Adaptability Planning: Snow, meltwater, and infrastructure practices for permafrost management," and Leena Cho shared design considerations and strategies informed by landscape architecture and urban planning in a panel on above-ground water and sewer design. UVA postdoc Cherí Johnson joined Mayor Toovak on the panel on knowledge co-production, where she shared personal reflections as an Indigenous scholar and insights from her research on "boundary walking" between Indigenous and Western natural science knowledge systems in the context of climate change.During the Arctic ACTION Workshop, the UVA-ARC team hosted a dinner for both workshop participants and community members catered by Thai Corner, a popular local food truck. Reflecting later, team members felt the May trip was the project’s strongest yet for community engagement. We attribute this to more intentional planning and to the stronger relationships built over several years. Other factors for success:
  • Tailoring presentations to each partner with information that is directly relevant to their organization and their community. 
  • Using plain language to communicate scientific information is also important, while providing options for accessing more detailed data and results. 
  • Presenting key takeaways in accessible, memorable, shareable formats such as postcards and posters.
While the NNA project has ended, UVA-ARC researchers are collaborating on a suite of research papers and products to capture broader, multidisciplinary insights from the work, while focusing on the continuing work on snow and water management in Utqiaġvik through the SNOWPAC project.



Field Notes
By Hannah Bradley, PhD | Jan 2026

Next Practices for Collaborative Research

For the NNA Utqiaġvik Sensor Array project, Co-PI Caitlin Wylie and postdoc Hannah Bradley have focused their social science research on observing and analyzing the developing collaboration between our academic colleagues and our community partners, asking “How can scientists and communities best work toward common goals?” We naturally want our continued work in Alaska be both effective and ethical. That means understanding how we can work together effectively in future research in ways that benefit both science and communities. This focus contributes to ongoing discussions across the Arctic on how the “co-production” of research can contribute to regional resilience. Co-production is an approach that aims to bring together diverse groups to collaborate as equals, sharing power, knowledge, and resources, to create outcomes (in this case, science) for collective benefit. Co-production is hard to analyze from a point of view inside a single project. Interactions and relationship building with community collaborators likely extend beyond the timeframe of one project. They may take place in the course of other work and during downtimes. However, after observing meetings, fieldwork, and presentations over three years, we have identified several key themes essential to successful collaboration:
  • Don’t be afraid to be uncomfortable! Being uncomfortable often means we’re working through something important as a team.
  • Remain clear about goals but flexible about outcomes. It helps to be adaptive, but we need to communicate clearly to work effectively with our partners.
  • When we don’t agree on standards of evidence, what data are necessary or when they are needed, we are not pulling together toward integrated goals, just working in our own lanes.
 To do research that is grounded in community, our recommendations for science teams fall into three categories: Be Vulnerable
  • Be invited.
  • Ask—assume nothing!
  • Share early.
  • Embrace flexibility.
  • Be open to redefining co-production.
  • Officially share decision-making power and funds with community partners—ideally from the start in the funding proposal.
  • Network with similar projects and be honest about fieldwork challenges and solutions. Sharing this experiential knowledge early saves time and effort. It builds knowledge, while sparing communities research fatigue and potential environmental harms from poorly designed research.

Center relationships
  • Do ongoing cultural pre/re-education.
  • Learn about the land (Nuna). 
  • Time visits and meetings to promote participation and limit disruption. 
  • Spend money locally. 
  • Center relationships beyond the bounds of the project. Visit outside of structured meetings. Attend local social and community events.
  • Consider relationships to be valuable outcomes of a project, in addition to papers, datasets, and students.
Share
  • Make a Communication Plan and follow through.
  • Provide regular updates to community groups.  
  • Agree on a co-working digital infrastructure.
  • Agree on a space for chatter.
  • Define “outreach” and set a policy.
  • Provide continuous access to data and meetings.
  • Synthesize results into “Key Takeaways.” People appreciate them.
University of Virginia design research students use a thaw probe to measure permafrost active-layer depths near Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital in Utqiaġvik. (Credit: Leena Cho)
 Class and Field Notes By Matthew Jull, PhD | Sep/Oct 2025

Research Studio: City Built on Thawing Ground

Fall 2025 marked the second year of City Built on Thawing Ground, a traveling research studio led by Leena Cho and Matthew Jull through the Arctic Design Group and the University of Virginia Arctic Research Center (UVA-ARC). The studio examined how permafrost thaw, snow redistribution, and surface water processes are impacted by the built environment in Utqiaġvik, Alaska. Building on National Science Foundation Navigating the New Arctic (NSF NNA) observation sites, students combined site documentation and targeted thaw probing with interpretation of sensor data to map surface conditions to support planning and design work at parcel and neighborhood scales. The studio was supported by the UVA Environmental Institute Climate Collaborative project "Snow, Water, and Permafrost in Arctic Communities (SNOWPAC)."  From September 26 to October 3, 2025, the team completed site work, took field trips, and met with community partners. Students visited NOAA’s Barrow Atmospheric Baseline Observatory, met with Iḷisaġvik College faculty and students, and conducted infrastructure-focused visits with the Barrow Utilities and Electric Cooperative (BUECI), the Taġiuġmiullu Nunamiullu Housing Authority (TNHA), and the North Slope Borough. The trip also included a meeting with Herman Ahsoak, whaling captain of the Quvan Crew, who brought students to Point Barrow and shared knowledge about subsistence hunting. These activities were paired with observation and documentation of building, construction, and maintenance practices, drainage conditions, gravel–tundra interfaces, and tundra vegetation. Students carried out extensive thaw probing around Utqiaġvik to connect surface conditions and processes to subsurface thermal response. Studio teams focused on UVA-ARC's four established NSF NNA study sites with sensor arrays—Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital (SSMH), TNHA (“first” 29-plex), Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO), and BUECI—and added a fifth site at the Imaiqsaun Road Corridor (IRC).  Teams developed projects for each of the five sites in response to priorities identified by local partners. The student teams presented their work at the final review at UVA at the UVA School of Architecture on December 15, 2025. The four-hour review session was webcast so community partners in Utqiaġvik and others could join if interested. The team working at IRC consulted with the City of Utqiaġvik and TRIBN (a local consulting company and project collaborator) on a plan addressing flooding, accessibility, and potential cemetery expansion. The BUECI team developed a neighborhood block plan for future above-grade utilities, accounting for permafrost conditions, maintenance access, and surface water routing, while also considering seasonal community needs. The BEO team developed interconnected single-family housing prototypes treating tundra and surface conditions as primary constraints. The TNHA team proposed multi-family housing near the new hospital site, linking building layout to drainage and ground conditions. The SSMH team proposed temporary patient housing adjacent to the hospital, accounting for varying patient needs, while also considering local variations in permafrost conditions in the area, drainage/watersheds, snow drifting, and factoring in above-grade utilities. 
Overall, the City Built on Thawing Groundstudio used field observations, sensor data, municipal and partner meetings, and published planning documents to develop applied design projects on above-grade utilities, housing, and snow and meltwater conditions affecting permafrost. Outputs include maps, drawings, and other visual materials intended to support planning discussions, maintenance, and future funding applications. Studio materials are currently being compiled into short reports that synthesize these outcomes for the partner organizations in Utqiaġvik.
While assisting with aquatic sampling at Imikpuk Lake, postdoc Valentina Ekimova captured this photo of a polar bear running near the Bering Sea coast in Utqiaġvik. (Credit: Valentina Ekimova)

Field Notes
By Valentina Ekimova, PhD | Sep/Oct 2025 Snow and Ice: Tracking Infrastructure Impact in Arctic Aquatic Systems

From 30 September to 7 October, Utqiaġvik, Alaska, greeted us with a surprise: about 3 inches of shorefast ice on our study sites. At the same time last year, these shores were only lightly iced even later in October, so this early, solid ice cover was not what we expected.Our targets were the same three water bodies, now in their early winter mode: Imikpuk Lake, Middle Salt Lagoon, and Isatkoak Lagoon. The method also stayed the same. Using a YSI EXO1 Multiparameter Sonde, we collected shoreline profiles of temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, algal biomass, and fluorescent dissolved organic matter (fDOM) at locations influenced by roads and buildings as well as more tundra-dominated stretches. What changed was the effort required to reach the water. Instead of picking our way through slush and thin ice, we had to work through thick, resonant ice that echoed across Utqiaġvik with every hammer strike. Armed with a hammer and an ice breaker, and with support from our bear guard Emi, we opened holes through the ice at each sampling point. Emi not only kept an eye out after a recently visiting bear, but also helped us break through the ice so we could get the sonde into the water.The cold was not just an abstract metric; our instrument felt it too. The sonde started to freeze between measurements, so we treated it like a small, very valuable field companion, tucking it back into a warm, thermally insulated cover whenever it was out of the water.Despite the conditions, we completed our planned transects and came away with a full set of fall measurements that pair directly with our summer data. Together, these two years of summer and autumn records will allow us to explore how infrastructure and strong seasonality shape the chemistry and thermal structure of Arctic lakes and lagoons. I will share the results in an oral presentation at AGU 2025 in New Orleans, 15–19 December. View presentation slides.
Postdoc Valentina Ekimova measures chemical charicteristics in Imukpuk Lake. (Credit: MacKenzie Nelson)
Field Notes
By Valentina Ekimova, PhD | Jun 2025

Water, Water, Everywhere: 
Tracking Infrastructure Impact in Arctic Aquatic Systems

In mid-June, Postdoc Valentina Ekimova and Environmental Sciences PhD candidate MacKenzie Nelson returned to Utqiaġvik to continue the summer sampling campaign at three key water bodies: Imikpuk Lake, Middle Salt Lagoon, and Isatkoak Lagoon. These two lagoons and one lake may look calm on the surface, but they carry the chemical signatures of seasonal rhythms, human activity, and permafrost dynamics. Equipped with a YSI EXO1 Multiparameter Sonde, we walked the shorelines and gathered key water quality parameters: temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, algal biomass, and fluorescent dissolved organic matter (fDOM). Shore-based sampling lets us do more than capture snapshots in time; it helps trace solute movement, identify zones influenced by infrastructure, and even hint at the direction of flow. These Arctic water bodies are sensitive, responsive, and always in flux. We’ll come back to keep listening to what they have to tell us. We’ve done this before. Last year’s data showed that areas near roads and buildings were consistently warmer, saltier, and higher in organic material than more remote tundra zones. This year’s mission: to see whether those trends persist or if new patterns are emerging. Field conditions were mostly in our favor, though lingering ice and snow meant we had to do some careful sliding to reach water deep enough for measurements. Still, we wrapped up the week with a solid second summer dataset. Now it’s time to dig into the numbers, track the trends, and get ready for the fall sampling season. 
A BigDot PM sensor in its 3D printed case (circled in red) at a highly trafficked intersection (Laura Madison St & Ahkovak St.) near a recently closed supermarket, a children's playground, the Inupiat Heritage Center, and Fire Station. (Credit: Mirella Shaban)
Field Notes
By Mirella Shaban | May/Jun 2025

Finding Air Quality Hotspots to Inform Dust Mitigation

Another UVA|ARC team traveled to Utqiaġvik this spring to deploy “BigDot” particulate matter (PM) sensors in areas deemed to be potential or observed hotspots for dust, and therefore, for poor air quality. 
Eighteen sensors were deployed across the city. A handful were placed along a major coastal road (Stevenson St.), a major inner village roadway (Laura Madison), and the major roadway into the tundra (Cakeeater Rd.). The remainder of the sensors were placed at suspected hotspots where cars and foot traffic intersect (stop signs, roadways with high foot traffic, the airport).  Data is collected by the PM sensors at hourly intervals, transmitted from a Notecard Cellular XM device, and pulled into a Datacake data visualization database. For this task, Environmental Sciences and Data Science PhD student Mirella Shaban was joined by partners from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Fairbanks, Alaska. The goal of the study is to identify locations of high PM air pollution in Utqiaġvik and to quantify the frequency and severity of high PM events: 
  • How often do they cross U.S. EPA and World Health Organization (WHO) standards for daily exposures? 
  • What will the data tell us about hourly exposure thresholds (derived from WHO daily exposure thresholds)? 
  • What can we infer about the risk to community members and especially vulnerable populations based on the frequency, severity, and location of PM exposures?
 PM sensors will be retrieved at the end of summer, and we will start to analyze the air quality data. The findings will inform the community of locations of PM hotspots, potentially inform future public health mitigation regarding dust exposure, and provide a high-resolution dataset community planners can use for dust mitigation efforts.

Hannah Bradley and Cherí Johnson observe Howard Epstein and Matthew Jull working on the sensor base station at Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital. The ladder was loaned by the Arctic Slope Native Association, community partners who have been generous with their time and resources and are always welcoming!  (Credit: Hannah Bradley)
 Field Notes By Hannah Bradley, PhD | May 2025

Social Scientists Go to the Field

In mid-May, social scientists Hannah Bradley and Cherí Johnson traveled to Utqiaġvik alongside our colleagues from the Environmental Science and Architecture departments to continue our studies of how science works. Watching scientists do science is just one aspect of our research, and it's great to be in the field and lend a hand or hold a ladder. Our observations covered two aspects of our social science research: 1) Observing our colleagues as they organized their data collection, repaired sensors, and met with our community partners. This is part of our study of scientific collaboration: How do we communicate and build relationships with community partners? How do we use sensors to try to answer the questions we all have about Arctic urban environments? 2) Doing groundwork for parallel research on human experiences of the urban environment for our UVA Environmental Institute Climate Collaborative project on “Snow, Water, and Permafrost in Arctic Communities (SNOWPAC).” We made stops at the Iñupiat Heritage Center, BUECI, and around town, lining up archival sources and interviews that will give us a better understanding of the history of utilities and public services in Utqiaġvik. In both research strands, we want to understand how infrastructure, communities, and scientific research interact to create livable futures for Arctic cities.How do we communicate and build relationships with community partners? How do we use sensors to try to answer the questions we all have about Arctic urban environments?
While in Utqiaġvik, we also attended a public meeting by the Army Corps of Engineers and Bryce Contracting about the upcoming seawall construction. This was a fascinating opportunity to see the rocky intersection between big infrastructure projects and Arctic communities. We are excited to better understand how major changes, such as a seawall or above-ground utilities, will affect the community.
Postdoctoral researchers Cheri Johnson and Valentina Ekimova measures snow depth in Utqiagvik with an avalanche probe on May 23, 2025. (Credit: Hannah Bradley)
Field Notes
By Valentina Ekimova, PhD |  May 2025

Snow, Pixels, and Probes: Ground-Truthing in Utqiaġvik

In mid-May, we headed into the snow-covered landscape of Utqiaġvik, Alaska, equipped with a Snowmetrics SWE kit and a Voile avalanche probe to ground-truth snow conditions for satellite validation. The goal: to collect accurate snow depth and density measurements to support the interpretation of high-resolution imagery from Sentinel-2, PlanetScope, and SkySat.  Each field site followed a planned grid with sampling points spaced roughly 10 meters apart, spanning open tundra, built environments, and zones affected by wind redistribution. At each point, we recorded snow depth, snow water equivalent (SWE), and GPS coordinates—using a Garmin receiver to ensure precise location data.  The avalanche probe made it efficient to map depth variability across sites, while the SWE kit enabled clean and reliable snow density sampling directly in the field. Key locations included the Taġiuġmiullu Nunamiullu Housing Authority (TNHA) apartment area, Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital (SSMH), the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO), the Barrow Arctic Research Center (BARC), and several snow fence zones where drifting and early melt create complex patterns. 
“In a place where snow is as dynamic as the sky above it, there’s something deeply satisfying about linking field measurements to orbital pixels—and watching the science come together.” Next up: pairing these ground observations with satellite imagery from the same time window to assess how accurately the sensors capture snowpack structure and spatial variability. 
Home Projects Notes In Print Contact Subscribe