This summer, hundreds of field sites in Alaska and Canada9s Yukon and Northwest Territories will be surveyed as part of a $100 million, 10-year, NASA-led campaign to study the permafrost. Thanks to global warming, permafrost—soil that remains in part frozen throughout the year—is thawing across much the north, shifting ecosystems and potentially unlocking a vast pool of ancient carbon for slow release to the atmosphere, amplifying the greenhouse effect. Local influences like topography and the water content in the soil, however, prevent long-term field sites from extrapolating their results to the landscape at large. It9s hoped that the NASA project9s nine aircraft, armed with advanced laser altimeters and radar, will help knit these local measures into a broad tapestry portraying the Arctic9s future.

中文翻译：

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美国宇航局舰队的目标是在北极土壤中解冻

今年夏天，作为一项耗资 1 亿美元、为期 10 年、由 NASA 牵头的永久冻土研究活动的一部分，将调查阿拉斯加和加拿大育空地区和西北地区的数百个现场。由于全球变暖，永久冻土——全年部分冻结的土壤——正在北方大部分地区解冻，改变生态系统，并可能释放大量古老的碳，缓慢释放到大气中，放大温室效应。然而，地形和土壤中的含水量等局部影响会阻止长期实地考察将其结果外推到整个景观中。它希望 NASA 项目的 9 架飞机配备先进的激光高度计和雷达，将有助于将这些当地措施编织成描绘北极未来的广阔织锦。