Alaska Satellite FacilityNenana River Project

The annual cycle of freezing and thawing of rivers is an integral part of life in rural Alaska. Freeze-up (FU), break-up (BU) and the duration of ice and open water affect transport and communications, hunting, fishing, trapping and recreation. Ice jams during FU and BU can cause widespread flooding and disruption. FU, BU and duration are also important proxies for climate variability and change.

Rural residents are all too aware of the advantages and disadvantages of freezing and thawing rivers. Scientists have clearly demonstrated that ice duration on northern rivers has been decreasing since the mid-19th Century due to later FU in the fall and earlier BU in spring (Magnuson et al., 2000). Close to home, break-up on the Tanana River at Nenana is now ten days earlier than it was in the mid-1960s, and five days earlier than it was when records began in 1917 (Sagarin and Micheli, 2001; Jeffries et al., submitted).

Because river ice is integral to rural life, and it is changing as snow, permafrost, glaciers and sea ice in Alaska are also undergoing significant change, we view it as an ideal medium for educating K-12 teachers and students, and informal learners, about scientific inquiry, snow and ice processes, and Arctic environmental change. We have chosen to focus our initial efforts on the Nenana River in the Denali School District where there are schools at Cantwell, Healy and Anderson and the Denali Education Center (formerly the Denali Foundation).