Thawing Permafrost The Direct Line to the Arctic Permafrost How warm is it currently in the Arctic permafrost in Spitsbergen? The answer is just a click away. In 2012, AWI scientists of the Research Unit [...] above zero degrees Celsius and can therefore, by definition, no longer be described as permafrost," the permafrost researcher explains. Ny-Ålesund (Photo: Alfred-Wegener-Institut) Bayelva (Photo: Alfre [...] Arctic archipelago. The ground station constantly measures the temperature and soil moisture of the permafrost at different depths - all the way down to the ten-metre-deep drill hole. Since the beginning of