# Thirty Lake Beds After a Cold Alaska Winter > A browser and an internet connection are all you need to open the Permafrost Discovery Gateway, per NCEAS. Published 2026-08-28 by Alaska AI. 6 slides. Canonical: https://alaskaaihq.com/archive/2026-08-28/ ## What we verified - Researchers found around 30 more lakes that were affected by drainage in June and July 2026. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - The Seward and Baldwin peninsulas in northwestern Alaska are described by the researchers as hot spots for lakes suddenly draining. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - The researchers write that although winter 2025 to 26 was on the cold side for Alaska, the region continued to lose lake area. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - The authors say the continued loss of lake area suggests evidence of permafrost thaw. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - In the summer of 2018 alone almost 200 of the region's approximately 4,600 lakes lost more than a quarter of their area. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - Over the past two decades the region lost many large lakes that had covered its landscape for thousands of years. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - An international team working through the Permafrost Discovery Gateway has mapped and now actively monitors over 4 million lakes across the Arctic. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - The same mapping covers 70 million thermokarst ponds, also known as trough ponds, across the Alaska tundra. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - When ice rich permafrost thaws the ground surface subsides, creating thermokarst ponds, which the authors describe as depressions that fill with water. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - The authors say the same process that starts the sinkhole can form new stream channels that drain the lake, leaving a circular basin of bare ground behind. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - The authors write that a lake several hundred meters long might have taken a millennium to form yet permafrost thaw triggered by one unusually warm summer can completely drain it in just a few hours. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - The authors state that not all lake changes are caused by permafrost thaw. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - The authors note that lakes in floodplains and wetlands change dramatically across each season due to the abundance of snowmelt water in spring, and that wildlife can also play a role. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - Aerial photos starting from the late 1940s and satellite imagery that became available in the 1970s have helped scientists map what the Arctic's permafrost landscapes looked like. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - The authors write that Arctic temperatures rise at two to three times the global average rate. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - The authors say the new maps can show where land is underlain by ice rich permafrost, meaning bad choices for building sites, and where the frozen soil has less ice, likely indicating it is safer for building. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - The authors say detecting signs of permafrost thaw in those landscapes can help communities plan for changes to their environment. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - On August 13th, 2026 the Permafrost Discovery Gateway launched a new tool that allows users to explore lake drainage across the Arctic. [Woodwell Climate Research Center](https://www.woodwellclimate.org/project/permafrost-discovery-gateway/), primary document, 2026-08-13. - Woodwell Climate says that for the first time ever users can track lake drainage associated with ice rich permafrost thaw in near real time and across the entire Arctic region. [Woodwell Climate Research Center](https://www.woodwellclimate.org/project/permafrost-discovery-gateway/), primary document, 2026-08-13. - Woodwell Climate describes the Permafrost Discovery Gateway as an online platform in development for creating, analyzing and visualizing big geospatial permafrost products. [Woodwell Climate Research Center](https://www.woodwellclimate.org/project/permafrost-discovery-gateway/), primary document, 2026-08-13. - Anna Liljedahl is bylined as Affiliated Professor in Arctic Hydrology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - Woodwell Climate Research Center lists Anna Liljedahl as an Associate Scientist. [Woodwell Climate Research Center](https://www.woodwellclimate.org/project/permafrost-discovery-gateway/), primary document, 2026-08-13. - Ingmar Nitze is bylined as a postdoctoral researcher in polar geoscience at the Alfred Wegener Institute. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - Anna Liljedahl discloses funding from the Google.org Impact Challenge on Climate Innovation, the National Science Foundation under awards 1927872, 2052107 and 2234117, and Woodwell Climate Research Center. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - Ingmar Nitze discloses funding from Google.org Impact Challenge on Climate Innovation, the National Science Foundation, the Schmidt Sciences Virtual Institute for the Carbon Cycle and the Alfred Wegener Institute. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - Woodwell Climate was awarded a five million dollar Google.org grant for use of AI to track permafrost thaw. [Woodwell Climate Research Center](https://www.woodwellclimate.org/project/permafrost-discovery-gateway/), primary document, 2026-08-13. - The article was published on August 26th, 2026 and updated on August 27th, 2026. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com/disappearing-lakes-and-ai-are-helping-scientists-map-arctic-permafrost-thaw-in-near-real-time-290238), primary document, 2026-08-26. - NCEAS says the Permafrost Discovery Gateway is a resource where the only thing you need is a web browser and internet to get access to scientific products. [National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, UC Santa Barbara](https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/beneath-frozen-surface-how-ai-uncovering-secrets-permafrost), report, 2026-03-24. - NCEAS reports that in Alaska alone roughly 80 percent of the land contains permafrost to some degree and more than 140 communities build on it. [National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, UC Santa Barbara](https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/beneath-frozen-surface-how-ai-uncovering-secrets-permafrost), report, 2026-03-24. - NCEAS reported in March 2026 that the Permafrost Discovery Gateway is supported in part by Google.org but that the funding is coming to an end. [National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, UC Santa Barbara](https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/news/beneath-frozen-surface-how-ai-uncovering-secrets-permafrost), report, 2026-03-24. - Alaska Beacon republished the article under the same headline with a feed timestamp of August 28th, 2026. [Alaska Beacon](https://alaskabeacon.com/feed/), report, 2026-08-28. - Phys.org carried the article on August 26th, 2026 under a headline that adds old photos to the title. [Phys.org](https://phys.org/news/2026-08-lakes-photos-ai-scientists-arctic.html), report, 2026-08-26. Slides and the deck PDF are linked from the canonical page.