While visiting the hamlet of Aklavik, a small Arctic community in the Mackenzie Delta, the co-lead of Arctic PASSION's communications work Josefine Lenz shared the newly launched Arctic Landscape EXplorer (ALEX). During the visit, Josefine was working with local Gwich’in, Métis and Inuvialuit youth of Moose Kerr School in the citizen science project "UndercoverEisAgenten".

From practical Earth observation on local level to pan-Arctic exploration of permafrost change: Josefine introduces Arctic PASSION's ALEX tool at Moose Kerr School (Credits: Marlin Müller, Josefine Lenz)

Students undertook drone surveys on landscape changes, specifically permafrost and river bank erosion, and discussed the mapping results of young citizen scientists from German schools. On the final day of the visit, students were introduced to the ALEX tool, which offered a great opportunity to expand their perspective beyond local landscape changes. First, we have looked at Aklavik and its surroundings and detected land gain and land loss due to flooding and river dynamics, lakes which drained and others that have expanded, as well as dumpsites and fuel storage developed during the last 20 years. Expanding the view to other Arctic communities and witnessing change in Alaska, Greenland or Siberia was unfortunately hampered due to failing internet connection but hopefully created curiosity for exploring more of the Arctic region on their own. The school visit ended with a virtual 3D visit to the newly obtained drone images and the German city of Jena, which was a fun experience for the students.

Watch the video for more background information on the "UndercoverEisAgenten" BMBF Project (Credits: HeiGIT, DLR and AWI).