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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The Sikuliaq, a 261-foot ice-capable research vessel operated by UAF, pauses in the Arctic Ocean in June 2021 during its fifth year of operation. A few months later, it traveled farther north than ever before — almost 500 miles beyond Point Barrow. Photo by Ethan Roth

GINA provides a guiding hand in Arctic Ocean research

November 11, 2021
The research vessel Sikuliaq navigated among and around the chunks and slabs of Arctic sea ice above Alaska for several weeks on two voyages this...
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Rajan Itani. Photo by Daniel Walker

Student’s research upends understanding of upper atmospheric wind

November 9, 2021
Space physicist Mark Conde had been seeing something curious in his atmospheric research data since the 1990s. But it was not until three years...
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This map shows Oct. 21, 2021, precipitation reports from volunteer observers across the Lower 48. Colors represent rainfall amounts, ranging from zero in empty circles to heaviest in red circles.    Image courtesy of www.cocorahs.org

UAF scientist seeks recruits for weather army

October 22, 2021
The weather army in Alaska is recruiting more volunteers. About 200 Alaskans already participate in the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and...
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Melinda Webster carries a magnaprobe to measure the depth of melt ponds. Photo by Lianna Nixon

A year after MOSAiC: Arctic melt ponds hold climate clues for UAF scientist

October 20, 2021
Melinda Webster splashed daily through the clear water of Arctic melt ponds to measure the depth of the water cradled in pockets dotting the...
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Arctic haze appears over northern Alaska in 2008 as photographed from a NASA aircraft. Photo by Jingqiu Mao

UAF joins national air quality research with Interior Alaska site

October 7, 2021
A site near Delta Junction will be the Alaska research location in a $12 million multi-state project to determine the content of airborne...
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Crew member Johna Winters, a master’s student in marine resource management at Oregon State University, watches from the Sikuliaq’s bridge on Sept. 20, 2021. Bernard Coakley photo

Geophysics professor wraps up voyage exploring Amerasia Basin’s origin

October 4, 2021
A science cruise led by a University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher to investigate the origin of the Arctic Ocean’s Amerasia Basin has come to an...
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Alexandru Lapadat at Eagle and Symphony Lakes in Alaska, 2017. Photo courtesy Alexandru Lapadat.

UAF awards first Schaible Geophysical Institute Fellowship

September 20, 2021
Alexandru Lapadat has a story Alaskans often hear from visitors who come back to the state after a first visit. “I was here once four years ago...
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Surface water extent is shown (blue) around New Orleans on Aug 29, 2021. Water extent data is derived from synthetic aperture radar. A SAR image is in the background. Credit: UAF Geophysical Institute.

Work by UAF researchers and NASA aids Hurricane Ida response

September 17, 2021
Federal emergency managers needed detailed information as Hurricane Ida approached Louisiana at the end of August. In Fairbanks, 3,400 miles away...
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A photo of CuPID in December 2019, when the chassis, or base frame of the device, met the avionics. Credit: Emil Atz

Big space mystery gets big attention from UAF space physicist

September 14, 2021
Associate professor Hyunju Connor is looking forward to the launch of an Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California...
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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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