Life finds a way – but exactly how long does it take? Until recently, scientists had little clue why vegetation can take anywhere from a few years to a century to recover after thaw slumps – greenery-destroying landslides triggered when climate change thaws permafrost. Thanks to a new CUHK study, however, recovery time can now be predicted with striking accuracy.

Current technology like satellite remote sensing is sharper and faster than the human eye in studying earth terrain for climate change effects but limited in detecting changes to landscape from massive and vast permafrost thawing. A CUHK geophysicist has developed an AI tool “DeepThaw”, a unique algorithm fed by massive numbers of satellite images to detect destabilised slopes over a wide area automatically to address the risk our cryosphere is facing.