Recent climate warming has led to increases in surface air and ground temperatures, which has contributed to regional permafrost degradation, or permafrost thaw, across the Beaufort Delta Region. Thawing permafrost has led to infrastructure challenges across the region; roads and waterways are experiencing slumping along their borders, and buildings built on pilings are starting to tilt. For many years, Dr. Burn has studied changes in permafrost stability and ground temperature at various locations in the western Arctic, with a focus on the outer Mackenzie delta. He has an array of thermistor installations, ranging from Herschel Island, on the Yukon North Slope, to Paulatuk, on the Arctic Ocean coast of the NWT. At each site, ground temperature sensors are deployed in steel pipes, inserted into the ground through the permafrost layers. Ground temperature readings are measured and recorded to develop temperature profiles and observe changes in temperature/depth across these profiles over time.