Áidejávri Pals Mire Observatory

Site Overview & Permafrost Monitoring

Áidejávri is a critical sub-Arctic pals mire observatory located in Kautokeino municipality, Finnmark. The site features isolated peat plateaus with frozen peat and ice cores (palsas) surrounded by thermokarst ponds and wet fen vegetation.

Because palsas exist near the climatic boundary of permafrost survival, Áidejávri serves as a sensitive indicator for climate-driven permafrost degradation, ground thaw subsidence, and peatland collapse.

Decade-Long Time Series (2015–2025)

DroneLab@UiO has maintained an ongoing decade-long UAV monitoring initiative at Áidejávri, capturing ultra-high-resolution photogrammetry and airborne LiDAR:

• Decade Elevation Change (2015 vs 2025): Quantifying palsa degradation rates, block slumping, and thermokarst pond expansion over a 10-year period.
• Airborne LiDAR (Zenmuse L1 / L2): Bare-earth Digital Terrain Models (DTM) separating dense peat vegetation canopy from true ground elevation.
• Seasonal Thaw Dynamics: Comparison between winter snow-cover surveys (March 2024) and late-summer thaw maximums (September 2015–2025).