Today, the study of Arctic is important because scientists need to learn more about how climate and weather are changing. Scientist go to Arctic to investigate how Arctic climate and weather interact with the rest of the world, and they are also working to understand how climate change will affect the region. To study the Arctic, scientist sometimes travel to the field to conduct experiments or make observations. They study the properties of snow and sea ice, digging snow pits to examine the properties of snow, or measuring the thickness of sea ice by hand to determine how the ice cover is changing. Scientists also study the frozen ground and permafrost that covers much of the Arctic lands. And biologists research the unique plants and animals that live in the Arctic.