Student's sprite images go viral
Recent sprite images captured by Jason Ahrns, a graduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, have gone viral. The doctoral candidate has taken part in a sprite imaging campaign over the Midwest from late July through August 13. However, due to Ahrn's captivating blog and Flickr site, media requests keep rolling in.
An aurora detector in Petersburg
Storms in Earth’s upper atmosphere sometimes turn on more than just the aurora, inducing currents in buried pipelines, power grids and undersea cables.
Photo by Ned Rozell.
On cold winter nights long ago, Harvey Gilliland of Petersburg sometimes woke to the buzz of an alarm mounted on the wall of his kitchen. He kicked off the blanket, got dressed, pulled on his rubber boots, and strolled three city blocks to the building in which he worked.
After Gilliland, an electronics technician, twisted a few knobs to restore normal power to an underwater communications cable, the buzzer stopped. The noise was there to alert him to excessive current on the cable’s power system.
Alaska Science Forum: An aurora detector in Petersburg
By nrozell [at] gi [dot] alaska [dot] edu (Ned Rozell)
On cold winter nights long ago, Harvey Gilliland of Petersburg sometimes woke to the buzz of an alarm mounted on the wall of his kitchen. He kicked off the blanket, got dressed, pulled on his rubber boots, and strolled three city blocks to the building in which he worked.
Parthasarathy remembered: Friends, colleagues to gather June 14
A memorial for Professor Emeritus of Physics Raghaviyengar “Sardi” Parthasarathy will take place Friday, June 14 in the Elvey Globe Room. The event will begin at 3 p.m.
Parthasarathy joined the Geophysical Institute in 1958 and was awarded emeritus status in 1985. The scientist died March 7, 2012 in Laurel, Maryland at the age of 82.
2015 AGU Chapman Conference on Magnetospheric Dynamics
(Subject to Approval by AGU Chapman Conference Program: Not for public consumption)
Convenors: Joe Kan and Peter Delamere
Geophysical Institute
University of
Alaska Fairbanks
Local Conference Coordinator: Diana Campbell
Measuring the winds of space: UAF team prepares for 2014 launch
The sounding rocket released bright puffs of tri-methyl aluminum, which scientists track from the ground to study winds near the lower boundary of space. The streak on the bottom right is formed by chemicals that have been moved and distorted by winds and turbulence.
Photo Courtesy Carl Andersen
On a clear, cold night two winters ago in Fort Yukon, Carl Andersen watched a rocket he helped design pierce the upper atmosphere. He and three other scientists shot pictures as the rocket ejected bright puffs of chemicals in an inverted V formation more than 60 miles up.
“They were the brightest things in the sky,” Andersen said from his office at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Alaska Science Forum: Measuring the winds of space
By molly [dot] rettig [at] gi [dot] alaska [dot] edu (Molly Rettig) 
On a clear, cold night two winters ago in Fort Yukon, Carl Andersen watched a rocket he helped design pierce the upper atmosphere. He and three other scientists shot pictures as the rocket ejected bright puffs of chemicals in an inverted V formation more than 60 miles up.
Big booms over the northland
A photo from the Leonid Kulik expedition to the Tunguska region of Russia in 1929. A meteorite or comet knocked down millions of trees in one of the largest space-object-meets-Earth events in recorded history.
The Leonid Kulik Expedition, St. Petersburg Museum.
Near a small village in Russia, Marina Ivanova stepped into cross-country skis and kicked toward a hole in the snow. The meteorite specialist with the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and Vernadsky Institute in Moscow was hunting for fragments of the great Chelyabinsk Meteorite that exploded three days earlier.
Alaska Science Forum: Big booms over the northland
By nrozell [at] gi [dot] alaska [dot] edu (Ned Rozell)
Auroral Alert issued: Solar event should spur auroral activity April 12-13
A solar event on April 11, 2013 was facing Earth and should increase auroral activity for 24 to 48 hours after the arrival of the shock front, expected late on April 12 or early April 13.
