Extent of Arctic permafrost 1997 and 2021

According to the newly released 35th State of the Climate report, 2024 saw record highs as the climate crisis deepens. Data records such as soil moisture, lake-surface temperature, permafrost, land-surface temperature and stratospheric ozone from ESA’s Climate Change Initiative helped underpin the report’s findings.

The animation shows the difference in the extent of Arctic permafrost in 1997 compared to 2021. Arctic permafrost stores nearly 1700 billion tonnes of frozen and thawing carbon. Anthropogenic warming threatens to release an unknown quantity of this carbon to the atmosphere, influencing the climate in processes collectively known as the permafrost–carbon feedback. Sometimes permafrost can thaw rapidly, but scientists are unsure why and what these abrupt thaws mean in terms of feedback loops.

Read full story: ESA data records help underpin climate change report