There's something buried in the Arctic soil that could have a huge effect on the future of our planet's climate. Scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have descended on Barrow, Alaska to study permafrost -- soil that remains frozen throughout the seasons, often for thousands of years. They're interested in permafrost because it has the potential to release an enormous amount of greenhouse gases in a short amount of time if rising temperatures cause the permafrost to thaw.

Nearly one quarter of the land in the Earth's Northern Hemisphere is permafrost, and the decaying plant matter within it contains about twice as much carbon as is presently in the atmosphere.

The Next Generation Ecosystem Experiment - Arctic, is a collaborative project between Lawrence Berkeley Lab and seven other institutions to study this ecosystem in incredible detail. The researchers began work in 2012, and plan to continue their research through 2022.

They aim to combine information from a wide range of techniques – from Electrical Resistance Tomography that measures the soil’s moisture, salinity and texture, to a kite outfitted with a camera that reveals the surface vegetation and topography. By bringing together a variety of techniques, they hope to learn all they can about this one specific location. The team plans to use the knowledge to create more accurate computer models of our planet's climate, which will allow scientists to better understand how permafrost everywhere will react to changes in temperature.

"The combination of above and below ground geophysical imaging of the Arctic tundra has enabled us to, for the first time, 'see' complex interactions occurring between land surface, active layer, and permafrost processes that contribute to carbon cycling," says Susan Hubbard, Director of the Earth Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.