It is has been an eventful spring semester for the COOL Lab!

Publications
PhD candidate Eric Levenson published his research on permafrost controls on lake distribution in Geophysical Research Letters. By presenting and analyzing a brand-new dataset of >800,000 lakes across the entire state of Alaska, his research found that glacial history moderates permafrost controls on lake distribution. These findings may help explain a longstanding disagreement in the literature around the net direction of permafrost-driven lake area changes. As evidence of its quality, this paper was selected for a Research Spotlight in AGU’s EOS. The novel dataset supporting this work, which we term ALPOD (the Alaska Lake and Pond Occurrence Dataset), is also now publicly available at ORNL DAAC.

Other lab member publications from the past semester include co-authorships in PNAS (on water and landscape evolution in volcanic terrain) and in Water Resources Research (on fundamental questions in lake ice research).

Awards
PhD candidate Eric Levenson received not one but two AGU Outstanding Student Presentation Awards (OSPA) for his presentations at AGU 2024! Eric received an award from the Biogeosciences Section for his presentation ‘Glacial History Modifies Permafrost Controls on the Distribution of Arctic-Boreal Lakes and Ponds‘ and an award from the Hydrology Section for his presentation ‘The Timing and Magnitude of Pan-Arctic Seasonal Lake Area Fluctuations from 2016-2023‘. Eric also received a Rippey Dissertation Writing Fellowship to help support the final year of his PhD at the University of Oregon.

Incoming PhD student Camryn Kluetmeier (starting in Fall 2025) received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship as well as a Duke Centennial Fellowship to support her PhD at Duke. Congratulations to both Eric and Camryn!

Grants
PI Sarah Cooley and postdoc Elizabeth Webb were awarded a four-year, $900k NASA grant through NASA’s Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) program. Titled ‘Resolving Key Outstanding Questions in Arctic Surface Water Dynamics using SWOT‘, this research will involve using SWOT data to better understand drivers of short-term and long-term variability in surface water storage in Arctic lakes.

Fieldwork
PhD student Ana Stringer attended the Sentinelle Nord Advanced Sea Ice Field School in Iqaluit and Qikiqtarjuaq, Nunavut in April. Along with 16 other PhD students from around the world, Ana spent 9 days in Nunavut conducting fieldwork out on the sea ice, participating in lectures and discussions, and learning about multi-disciplinary sea ice research.

Graduations
In June 2025, University of Oregon students James Maze and Maddie Huelbig both graduated with their MS in Geography. James’ thesis, titled ‘Investigating the influence of satellite sensor characteristics and atmospheric correction on Arctic lake mapping‘, focused on quantifying the differences between Sentinel-2 and Landsat for mapping surface water. Continuing on the Arctic lake theme, Maddie’s thesis, titled ‘Investigating environmental, climatic, and geomorphic controls on short-term lake area variability in Alaska‘, combined our lab group’s ALPOD dataset with other environmental datasets to assess what factors control lake area variability. Congratulations to both James and Maddie!