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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Brooke Kubby

AGU research spotlight: Radar as a crop managing tool

December 13, 2022
Brazil’s Mato Grosso region is that nation’s leading producer of livestock and grains. It is also a region of extensive land cover change. Brooke...
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Franz Meyer discusses the SAR Capacity Building Center. Photo by Nicole Houseweart

AGU research spotlight: UAF helping expand satellite radar’s reach

December 12, 2022
Satellite-based remote sensing by radar can reveal the world around us. It’s called synthetic aperture radar, commonly referred to as SAR, and it...
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In this photo, previously unpublished as far as is known, Charlie McGonagal, left, and Pete Anderson, two of the four-man Sourdough Expedition that ascended Denali’s North Peak, are shown in a mislabeled photograph. Photo from UAF Rasmuson Library archive

Newly found photos shed light on 1910 Denali climb

December 2, 2022
An unexpected find in a University of Alaska Fairbanks archive has revealed more information about the oft-debated April 1910 Sourdough...
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UAF Vice Chancellor for Research Nettie La Belle-Hamer and Rep. Bart LeBon. UAF/GI photo by JR Ancheta

Legislature honors Nettie La Belle-Hamer

November 29, 2022
The Alaska Legislature has honored UAF Vice Chancellor for Research Nettie La Belle-Hamer for being recognized by NASA for her contributions to...
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A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the Joint Polar Satellite System civilian polar-orbiting weather satellite for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Nov. 10, 2022. Photo by United Launch Alliance

Satellite launch means continued timely information for Alaskans

November 11, 2022
Thursday’s launch of an environmental satellite aboard an Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California might not register as a...
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Társilo Girona

Geophysical Institute volcanologist receives international honor

November 8, 2022
A University of Alaska Fairbanks volcanologist has received a high honor from the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. Társilo Girona...
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Illustration of NASA astronauts on the lunar South Pole. NASA illustration

Research provides details of possible NASA moon landing sites

October 28, 2022
A University of Alaska Fairbanks postdoctoral researcher has helped NASA better understand two of the possible landing sites for the space agency...
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Mount Edgecumbe rises in the foreground with Crater Ridge behind and to the north on May 19, 2022. Photo by Max Kaufman/Alaska Volcano Observatory

Research reveals magma activity beneath Mount Edgecumbe

October 20, 2022
Magma beneath long-dormant Mount Edgecumbe volcano in Southeast Alaska has been moving upward through Earth’s crust, according to research the...
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The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program near Gakona, Alaska, includes a phased array of 180 high-frequency crossed-dipole antennas spread across 33 acres and capable of radiating 3.6 megawatts into the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. Photo courtesy of HAARP

HAARP to begin largest set of experiments at its new observatory

October 17, 2022
Bouncing a signal off the moon. Learning more about a mysterious polar light. Sending a beam to Jupiter. Those are just some of the 13...
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Jesse Atencio, a fabricator in the Geophysical Institute's Machine Shop, shows the new metal 3D printer. Photo by JR Ancheta

Need a precision science tool? New 3D metal printer can do it

October 14, 2022
Mention 3D printing and someone is likely to think about small plastic things such as customized Lego bricks or miniature dinosaurs. 3D printing...
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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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