The data is melting
For twenty years, a network of Russian, Finnish, and German research stations tracked permafrost degradation across a 4,000-kilometre transect of northern Siberia. The data they collected was among the most granular in the world — temperature profiles, methane flux measurements, soil moisture readings, taken daily at over 200 monitoring points.
In March 2022, that network went dark.
What happened
Sanctions did not explicitly ban climate research. But they severed the financial, logistical, and institutional connections that made collaboration possible:
- Funding: EU and national grants could no longer flow to Russian partner institutions
- Equipment: Replacement sensors, calibration tools, and satellite uplinks could not be shipped
- Personnel: Visa restrictions made fieldwork exchanges impossible
- Data sharing: Russian institutions withdrew from open-data agreements
We are flying blind over one of the most climate-sensitive regions on Earth.
The stakes
Siberian permafrost contains an estimated 1,500 gigatonnes of organic carbon — roughly twice the amount currently in the atmosphere. As it thaws, it releases methane and CO₂, creating a feedback loop that accelerates warming.
What comes next
Some researchers are working around the restrictions — using satellite data, informal contacts, and third-country intermediaries. But remote sensing cannot replace ground-truth measurements, and the longer the gap persists, the harder it will be to reconstruct the baseline.