A NASA technician works on the payloads of one of the AWESOME mission’s three rockets at the space agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The rocket and payload components were then shipped to Poker Flat Research Range. Photo by Berit Bland/NASA

Poker Flat to launch three NASA rockets in single aurora experiment

March 21, 2025
Three NASA rockets are set to launch from Poker Flat Research Range in an experiment that seeks to reveal how auroral substorms affect the...
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Chief pilot Jason Williams of the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration, at right, controls a drone carrying the science instruments during a test flight Jan. 17, 2025. Research assistant professor Társilo Girona watches. Photo by Eric Marshall

UAF drones to sample active Costa Rica volcano

March 10, 2025
A four-person University of Alaska Fairbanks team plans to land an unmanned aircraft in the crater of an active Costa Rica volcano this week to...
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From left, Coda Consulting CEO Mathieu Gibeault, Eyal Saiet of ACUASI, and Gislain Chevrette, also of Coda, stand atop the new icing tower at the University of Alaska Fairbanks on Feb. 5, 2025. Photo by JR Ancheta

UAF tower to help enable drones to fly in icing conditions

March 4, 2025
A new icing tower at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute will help aerospace engineers figure out how to enable drones to...
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James Campbell. Photo by Eric Marshall

UAF student wins award from national chemistry organization

March 3, 2025
A University of Alaska Fairbanks graduate student researcher has been named one of 20 recipients nationally of a top award from the American...
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This image, with Earth’s north polar region at center, shows satellites (orange dots) and space debris (pink dots) in orbit through the ionosphere on July 22, 2024. Ionosphere model data were provided by Joseph Huba of Syntek Technologies in Virginia. Image courtesy of Paul Bernhardt

UAF scientist designing satellite to hunt small space debris

February 27, 2025
A University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist is participating in a U.S. government effort to design a satellite and instruments capable of...
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Mount Edgecumbe (L’úx Shaa), viewed from a helicopter in summer 2023, rises from forests on Kruzof Island about 15 miles west of Sitka. Photo by Ronni Grapenthin, Alaska Volcano Observatory/ University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute

Alaska-developed volcano monitoring system will expand across U.S.

February 20, 2025
A new radar-based volcano monitoring system developed by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and U.S. Geological Survey will expand across the U.S...
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The second of two rockets in the Ground Imaging to Rocket investigation of Auroral Fast Features mission launched on Feb. 8. Photo by Eric Marshall/UAF Geophysical Institute

First rocket campaign of 2025 concludes at Poker Flat Research Range

February 12, 2025
Two NASA rockets successfully launched from Poker Flat Research Range this month in search of answers about forms of rapid auroral behavior. The...
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Multiple glacial streams carry turbid glacial runoff into Kachemak Bay in this aerial view looking southwest from the head of the bay toward Homer on June 30, 2021. Photo by Martin Stuefer

Research reveals extent of Kachemak Bay’s surface cloudiness

January 30, 2025
Scientists have produced the first remote sensing analysis of how water clouded by sediment in glacier meltwater moves on the surface of Kachemak...
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This image is from a video that accompanies the unmanned aircraft systems courses and includes the history of drone flight.

UAF offers free online courses about unmanned aircraft systems

January 28, 2025
The public can learn the history, basics and engineering of unmanned aircraft systems through two free online courses offered by the University...
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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

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