The NASA LAMP payload undergoes final integration at the Poker Flat Research Range in February 2022. Photo by Terry Zaperach/NASA

Rocket to launch from Poker Flat in probe of mysterious pulsating aurora

February 22, 2022
NASA is set to launch a rocket from Poker Flat Research Range north of Fairbanks as early as Thursday, Feb. 24, in pursuit of greater...
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Photo courtesy Charlie Parr

Student’s research gets Editor’s Choice Award

February 1, 2022
A research paper by Charlie Parr, a graduate student and former Geophysical Institute research technician who now works at the International...
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A member of an expedition group stands on the edge of a newly formed crater on the Yamal Peninsula in northern Siberia in November 2014. Photo by Vladimir Pushkarev, Reuters via Nova

Nova episode explores Arctic methane explosions

January 31, 2022
Mysterious massive holes have been appearing across the Arctic landscape, and a team of scientists is investigating the cause and the impact in a...
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A sign greets visitors at the "Snow: Tiny Crystals, Global Impact" exhibit in Portland, Oregon. Photo by Molly Schmitz

Traveling museum exhibit shows importance of snow

January 27, 2022
Snow is a key to life on Earth. It reflects up to 80% of sunlight, functioning as an essential cooling radiator for the planet. It becomes liquid...
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A Praxis air quality sensor on the roof of the UAF Community and Technical College in Fairbanks measures gases and particulate matter. Another sensor is at ground level. Photo by Meeta Cesler-Maloney

Dozens of experts arrive in Fairbanks for air quality research

January 26, 2022
Nearly 50 scientists from the U.S. and Europe have arrived in Fairbanks for a seven-week study of the chemical interactions that lead to the...
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2022 Science for Alaska Lecture Series lineup

30th annual Science for Alaska Lecture Series announced

January 24, 2022
The University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute will host free live online public talks about Arctic Ocean exploration, retreating...
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Residents of Utqiagvik return by snowmachine from the lead at the edge of the shore-fast ice. Photo by Andy Mahoney, UAF Geophysical Institute

Scientists aim to improve sea ice predictions' accuracy, access

January 18, 2022
Sea ice predictions have improved markedly since the founding of an international forecasting and monitoring network 14 years ago. “These...
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A student at John Fredson School in Venetie, Alaska, works with one of the drone kits provided by the Alaska Satellite Facility through a NASA grant. Photo by Terri Mynatt

UAF scientists help rural students do science with tiny drones

January 14, 2022
The little airborne drone zipped across a lake near the Interior Alaska community of Venetie in late autumn, destined for a patch of white that...
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Chris Waigl at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in New Orleans. Photo courtesy Chris Waigl.

AGU research spotlight: Hyperspectral imaging of forests can aid wildfire prevention

December 17, 2021
Airborne hyperspectral imaging can be a valuable tool in wildfire prevention and forest management. That’s the message from a technology...
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Louise Farquharson, a research assistant professor at the UAF Geophysical Institute, checks a borehole near Nome on Alaska's Seward Peninsula. Photo courtesy of Vladimir Romanovsky

AGU research spotlight: UAF scientist finds Alaska’s Arctic coastal towns face extensive inundation

December 17, 2021
Coastal erosion and land subsidence driven by permafrost thawing may lead to extensive seawater inundation in several northern Alaska communities...
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Alex Witsil

AGU research spotlight: Postdoc creates method that can aid nuclear explosion detection

December 17, 2021
A University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher has devised a method to improve detection of distant explosions, including nuclear detonations, by...
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Taryn Lopez uses a ground-based instrument to measure sulfur dioxide emissions at Pavlof Volcano on the Alaska Peninsula in July 2017. Photo by Pavel Izbekov.

AGU research spotlight: New volcano activity monitoring method enhances early warning

December 16, 2021
Satellite data can now routinely be used to detect low levels of sulfur dioxide emissions from volcanoes, giving scientists another tool to...
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Victor Devaux-Chupin in an office where he conducts research at the UAF Geophysical Institute. Photo by Daniel Walker.

AGU research spotlight: Student’s research provides insight into world’s largest piedmont glacier

December 14, 2021
Understanding the surges and retreats of Alaska’s Malaspina Glacier is key if climate change models are to be applied to the glacier with...
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Jamshid Moshrefzadeh in Iceland in August 2021 to observe the eruption of Fagradalsfjall volcano. Photo courtesy Jamshid Moshrefzadeh.

AGU research spotlight: Student aids understanding of Bogoslof Volcano

December 14, 2021
Magma recharge from the late 2016 eruption of Bogoslof Volcano in Alaska resumed in March 2017 and continued until the end of a months-long...
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Clouds of vapor traces caused by chemical releases from the rocket form a grid pattern to show the movement of the wind in the upper atmosphere. The photograph was made from a NASA aircraft off the northeast coast of Greenland. Photo by Jason Ahrns

Rocket flies high over Norway in UAF scientist’s atmosphere experiment

December 1, 2021
A NASA sounding rocket soared high from a launchpad in Norway on Wednesday morning in a decades-old quest to understand the cause of a persistent...
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Cameron Markovsky, Tyler Rai, Nina Elder and Hannah Perrine Mode view an ice cave on the Kennicott Glacier during a research expedition this summer. Photo by Julian Dann.

'Erratic' collaboration supports both science and art

November 23, 2021
A random meeting between a scientist and an artist in the remote and quirky village of McCarthy, Alaska, last year led to new ways to communicate...
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Andy Aschwanden. Photo by Sean Tevebaugh, University of Alaska Fairbanks

UAF participating in new NSF institutes

November 22, 2021
Two researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute will participate in a new five-year $75 million effort by the...
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Geologists inspect an outcrop near the sample collection site. Photo courtesy Gunther Kletetschka

UAF scientist reveals cause of lost magnetism at meteorite site

November 19, 2021
A University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist has discovered a method for detecting and better defining meteorite impact sites that have long lost...
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About

Since it was established by an Act of Congress in 1946, scientists at the Geophysical Institute have studied geophysical processes from the center of the Earth to the surface of the sun and beyond, turning data and observations into information useful for state, Arctic and national priorities.

Contact info

The GI is located on the West Ridge of the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus.

2156 Koyukuk Drive
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Fairbanks, AK 99775

We acknowledge the Alaska Native nations upon whose ancestral lands our campuses reside. In Fairbanks, our Troth Yeddha' Campus is located on the ancestral lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana River.

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