Class & Field Notes

UVA|ARC
on the web:

Arctic Design Group
Arctic Data Center
Zotero

OSF
Gitlab
Instagram

Newsletter: Subscribe
Past Issues

Studio group at the NOAA Barrow Atmospheric Baseline Observatory (Courtesy: Matthew Jull)

Sept-Oct 2025 Fall 2025 Research Studio Fall 2025 marked the second year of City Built on Thawing Ground, a traveling research studio led by Leena Cho and Matthew Jull. The studio examined how permafrost thaw, snow redistribution, and surface water processes are impacted by the built environment. 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 in Utqiaġvik, Alaska. Keep reading

Polar bear sighting. (Credit: Valentina Ekimova)

Sept-Oct 2025
Snow and Ice: Tracking Infrastructure Impact in Arctic Aquatic Systems (Part II)
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. Keep reading

Standing water and a leaning road sign near the new cemetery in Utqiaġvik. (Credit: Kenzie Nelson)

June 2025
Water, water, everywhere: Tracking Infrastructure Impact in Arctic Aquatic Systems (Part I) For their summer sampling campaign, the aquatic team walked the shores of three of Utqiaġvik’s large water bodies to gather key water quality parameters that will help us understand the chemical signatures of seasonal rhythms, human activity, and permafrost dynamics. Keep reading

A BigDot PM sensor (circled in red) mounted at a busy intersection in Utqiaġvik. (Credit: Mirella Shaban)

May-June 2025
Finding Air Quality Hotspots to Inform Dust MitigationAnother 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. Keep reading

May 2025 Social Scientists go to the Field
In mid-May, social scientists Hannah Bradley and Cheri Johnson traveled to Utqiaġvik alongside our colleagues from the Environmental Science and Architecture departments to continue our social 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 social science observations covered two aspects of our research...
Keep reading

Here, Howard Epstein and Matthew Jull work on the sensor base station at Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital, while UVA social scientists observe. Our ASNA partners generously lent us the ladder! (Credit: Hannah Bradley)

Postdoctoral researchers measures snow depth with an avalanche probe in late May. (Credit: Hannah Bradley)

May 2025
Snow, Pixels, and Probes: Ground-Truthing in UtqiaġvikOver a week in May, the team
collected over 900 snow depth and density measurements spanning open tundra, built environments, and zones affected by wind redistribution in Utqiaġvik. Keep reading

Howie Epstein checks data loggers at the snow fence near the hospital in Utqiaġvik. (Credit: Valentina Ekimova)

May 2025
Sensor Reset Maintaining the Utqiaġvik Sensor Array includes routine tasks like changing batteries and replacing sensors that have stopped communicating. We have also been working to make the network more robust. The UVA|ARC team is investigating what types and numbers of sensors to install to enhance the Utqiaġvik Sensor Array over the next year. Keep reading

Book Release
Design and the Built Environment of the ArcticEdited by Leena Cho and Matthew Jull

Eleven new and original contributions from leading and emerging scholars and practitioners on the Arctic at the nexus of unprecedented socio-environmental transformations.

ISBN 978-1-032-66770-6

Notes Archive