This still photo from the Poker Flat Research Range's all-sky camera on the night of Saturday, April 15-16 shows a spiral in the sky resulting from the the SpaceX rocket's gas exhaust. Photo courtesy Don Hampton

Giant spiral appears in Alaska sky

April 18, 2023
Aurora watchers in Alaska were startled early Saturday morning when a huge spiral appeared in the sky. People quickly posted photos on social...
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This scanned image of a slice of the Pacific Ocean nodule reveals the nodule’s growth rings. Photo courtesy of Gunther Kletetschka

Paleomagnetism aids research on the Northern Hemisphere Glaciation

April 14, 2023
A small piece of Pacific Ocean floor, brought up 10 years ago by a Chinese research vessel from a depth of 16,500 feet and 2,700 miles from the...
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The ore body containing graphite is shown in this 2021 photo of Graphite Creek. At far left is a Graphite One drill rig. Photo by George Case, U.S. Geological Survey.

Research reveals geologic history of critical Alaska graphite deposit

April 13, 2023
A University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher is among the scientists who have revealed the metamorphic history of a high-grade graphite deposit on...
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ACUASI pilot Matt Westhoff guides the SeaHunter aircraft to the runway at Nenana Municipal Airport on May 5, 2022, for another test flight. Photo by Rod Boyce

New hangar will make Nenana a base for drone cargo testing

April 12, 2023
Nenana’s airport will be the site of a new 4,800-square-foot hangar for the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration. The hangar...
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Graduate student researcher Emily Fedders sits on top of an ice island with the portable interferometric radar. The ice island is in landfast sea ice on Alaska’s Arctic coast near Utqiaġvik. Photo courtesy of Andy Mahoney.

New method of monitoring shore ice could improve public safety

March 29, 2023
Specialized portable radar could serve as an early warning system to reduce risk for humans working on shorefast sea ice, according to a recently...
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The Elvey Building, right, at the University of Alaska Fairbanks houses the Geophysical Detection of Nuclear Proliferation University Affiliated Research Center. Photo by JR Ancheta.

‘Airborne object’ response builds on UAF, military partnership

March 16, 2023
Robert McCoy, director of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, was driving to the movie theater in Fairbanks on a Saturday...
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Image is a colored 3D perspective view of Venus’ Maat Mons. Image by David P. Anderson, SMU/NASA science photo library

UAF scientist offers evidence that Venus is volcanically active

March 15, 2023
Venus appears to have volcanic activity, according to a new research paper that offers strong evidence to answer the lingering question about...
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The Magellan probe that orbited Venus from 1990 to 1994 was able to peer through the thick Venusian clouds and build up the above image by emitting and re-detecting cloud-penetrating radar. Visible as the bright patch below central North is Venus’ highest mountain, Maxwell Montes. NASA image

UAF researchers aiding NASA in developing Venus seismometer

February 23, 2023
Earth has earthquakes, Venus has venusquakes. Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, working with NASA, are...
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Alaska Earthquake Center research seismologist Ezgi Karasözen displays a map of earthquake activity in a computer application named Earthquake. UAF/GI photo by JR Ancheta

For a UAF seismologist, the Turkey earthquake is personal

February 21, 2023
Ezgi Karasözen, a University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute research seismologist, was packing for a trip from her home in Colorado to...
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David Newman. UAF photo by Todd Paris

UAF research contributes to progress on fusion energy

February 20, 2023
Fairbanks and nuclear fusion research usually aren’t mentioned in the same sentence. But they could be. Plasma physicist David Newman at the...
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Event participants gather around the Sentry unmanned aircraft of the UAF Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration after a successful flight May 22, 2022, at Fairbanks International Airport. Photo by JR Ancheta/UAF Geophysical Institute

FAA grants wide authority to UAF unmanned aircraft center

February 15, 2023
The Federal Aviation Administration has granted a regulatory waiver to the University of Alaska Fairbanks unmanned aircraft systems test site...
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University of Alaska Fairbanks Ph.D. student Kyle Smith installs a seismic sensor in the Minto Flats on Sept. 3, 2015. Photo by Carl Tape

Research explains strength of earthquake shaking in Nenana Basin

January 25, 2023
Earthquakes in the Nenana Basin region of Interior Alaska last longer and feel much stronger than a quake of comparable magnitude would in a...
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Alaska Satellite Facility Director Wade Albright, with the Elvey Building behind him at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. ASF is located in the Elvey Building. Photo by JR Ancheta

Wade Albright selected as director of Alaska Satellite Facility

January 24, 2023
Wade Albright has been named director of the Alaska Satellite Facility at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. Albright has...
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The annual Science for Alaska lecture series returns this year to an in-person format, with the addition of an online audience, after two years of being online only due to the COVID outbreak. In this 2019 photograph, audience members listen during a presentation. UAF Geophysical Institute photo

31st annual Science for Alaska talks and outreach events announced

January 20, 2023
The University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute will host free public talks about tracking space debris, fostering education using the...
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A sign at the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program facility at Gakona, Alaska. Photo courtesy HAARP

NASA and HAARP conclude asteroid experiment

December 29, 2022
A powerful transmitter in remote Alaska sent long wavelength radio signals into space Dec. 27 with the purpose of bouncing them off an asteroid...
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This image from an animation shows the projected path of the asteroid 2010 XC15 as it passes by Earth. NASA/JPL-Caltech image

HAARP to bounce signal off asteroid in NASA experiment

December 21, 2022
An experiment to bounce a radio signal off an asteroid on Dec. 27 will serve as a test for probing a larger asteroid that in 2029 will pass...
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Anushree Badola points to her name on the American Geophysical Union talk schedule. Photo by Rod Boyce

AGU research spotlight: Knowing a forest’s makeup is key for firefighting

December 16, 2022
Wildfires are a natural part of the Alaska boreal ecosystem, but a recent increase in the number of fires with high acreage burned raises the...
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Soumitra Sakhalkar. Photo by Eric Marshall.

AGU research spotlight: Study shows depth of Alaska’s thawing permafrost

December 15, 2022
Permafrost in Alaska has been warming and thawing at an increasing rate. The state is actually sinking a little in places. Soumitra Sakhalkar, a...
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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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