A BBC Nature report released today features two professors from the Geophysical Institute's Space Physics and Aeronomy group -- Mark Conde and Dirk Lummerzheim. Both scientists are quoted in the story that relays how sounding rockets allow researchers to better understand the aurora and dynamics of the upper atmosphere.

Access "The greatest light show on Earth" here.

By nrozell [at] gi [dot] alaska [dot] edu (Ned Rozell)

Some places in this world are just too dirty, dull or dangerous for human pilots to fly. An airspace in the latter category is anywhere near gas flares in Alaska’s oilfields. With only a few seconds of warning, flames blast high in the air from a network of pipes, releasing the stress of sucking oil from deep in the ground.

By Ned Rozell

Professor David Newman of the Geophysical Institute's Space Physics and Aeronomy Research Group and the University of Alaska's Physics Department has been elected a Fellow by the American Physical Society. The APS has recognized Newman's "seminal contributions in a broad range of nonlinear problems relating to plasma turbulence, transport in fusion plasmas, and complex nonlinear systems."

By Ned Rozell

For many Alaskans, January 1989 is a month that still numbs the mind, because of the cold snap that gripped much of the state for two weeks. In Fairbanks, fan belts under the hoods of cars snapped like pretzels; the ice fog was thick and smothering, and the city came as close as it ever comes to a halt, with many people opting to stay home after their vehicles succumbed to the monster cold.

Sign up for Applied Seismology - GEOS 694 - for spring semester and earn three credits! Assistant Professor of Geophysics Carl Tape of the Geophysical Institute will instruct the course that will explore the study of earthquakes and Earth's interior structure using seismological theories and algorithms. The course runs from 9:45 to 11:15 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Elvey 301N. 

Supporting the Geophysical Institute's hefty presence at the American Geophysical Union 2011 Fall Meeting, Design Services is offering the following special rates for poster printing:

Bring or upload posters by November 8 and rates will be $132 for a 4'x6' or $105 for a 3'x5' for poster printing. Other dimensions will be 15 percent off.

Twenty new items were added to the Keith B. Mather Library's collection in late October. The additions include a USGS professional paper co-edited by Jeff Freymueller of the Geophysical Institute's Seismology group. You can access a pdf of that paper here.

Here is a list of the new items in alphabetical order:

Essential Mathematical Methods for the Physical Sciences

Come one, come all, to the GI Thanksgiving potluck! Please bring your favorite dish to share with your co-workers and friends on Tuesday, November 15. Lunch will be served in the IARC lobby and desserts will be in the GI Globe Room. So, dust off your cookbooks, sharpen up your knives, drag out the pots and pans and create that favorite recipe to share with the folks you work with.