GI Press Releases
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—The University of Alaska purchased its unmanned aircraft in 2006 and the 40-pound robotic plane can fly up to 20 hours at a time, collecting data even through the harshest conditions. These superlatives make the Insitu A-20 an ideal tool for scientists that need information
from areas that are often difficult or dangerous to get to. 
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—It's hard to conduct experiments on something you can't reach. When it comes to research on the aurora, scientists have worked their way around this problem by taking the experiment to the aurora, using rockets that fly more than 100 miles above Earth.
First rocket experiment of 2009 launches from Poker Flat Research Range
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—University of Alaska Fairbanks students watched eagerly as their rocket project launched successfully from Poker Flat Research Range on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2009. The Ionospheric Science and Inertial Sensing project, called ISIS for short, launched at 2:17 p.m. Alaska
Standard Time and flew as designed to the D-region of the ionosphere. A NASA sounding rocket carried the experiment to an altitude of nearly 61 vertical miles.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—A total of eight National Aeronautics and Space Administration sounding rockets will launch from Poker Flat Research Range in 2009. The rocket season is split into two launch windows. The first launch window opens Jan. 10, and will remain open until Feb. 5, 2009.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska— A new technique allows scientists to determine the landscape of locales more than 48 million miles from Earth. The method determines the diameter, depth and overall shape of other planets’ surface craters from shadows visible in images captured from probes traveling through the Milky Way. John Chappelow, a postdoctoral fellow with the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center and the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, is developing a computer program called CRATERZ, based on the method. The program will read an image’s resolution, and the solar elevation and azimuth to calculate the diameter, depth and parameters to describe the shapes of surface craters on celestial bodies millions of miles away.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—An ice-free Arctic has the potential to unlock a wealth of resources that have long been inaccessible, buried beneath the ocean floor. This year, Russia nabbed a slew of attention for its claim that the Lomonosov Ridge is simply an extension of the Siberian continental shelf, an area believed to be rich in oil and gas reserves.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—Three Alaska volcanoes erupted in midsummer 2008. Cleveland, Okmok and Kasatochi volcanoes, all located in Alaska’s Aleutian Chain, made for a hectic 20th anniversary for the Alaska Volcano Observatory.
In a series of three flights through restricted airspace in Puget Sound, WA, the University of Alaska’s unmanned aircraft system proved its value to science once again.
The unmanned aircraft system, or UAS for short, was launched off the top deck of the Oscar Dyson, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship, Oct 15-16, 2008. The UAS demonstrated to scientists that i
Denise Thorsen named director-elect of ASGP
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—Electrical engineer Denise Thorsen has been selected as director-elect of the Alaska Space Grant Program.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—Electrical engineer Denise Thorsen has been selected as director-elect of the Alaska Space Grant Program.
