The sea ice that Iñupiat hunters have navigated for thousands of years is changing — becoming less predictable, opening in new places, freezing later and thawing earlier.

These changes are happening faster than satellite instruments and climate models can fully track, and the observers who are noticing the details first are often the hunters and community members whose livelihood depends on understanding the ice.

The Alaska Arctic Observatory and Knowledge Hub is one of several programs that systematically partner Indigenous observers with climate scientists, creating a documentation of environmental change that combines the precision of instruments with the contextual richness of knowledge accumulated over generations.

Iñupiat observers have noted changes in animal behavior, ice formation patterns, and weather phenomena that provide early warning of conditions that scientific instruments detect only later.