The research team’s tents sit on the Greenland ice sheet in the film “Utuqaq.” Photo courtesy of Iva Radivojevic

Film shows Geophysical Institute research in harsh Greenland landscape

May 28, 2021
The wind’s low, rumbling howl fills the ears for 89 seconds before a human voice is heard. The ice and snow of Greenland’s expanse passes below...
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Kennicott Glacier in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. Photo: David Rounce

Global study of glacier debris shows impact on melt rate

May 19, 2021
A large-scale research project at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute has revealed insight into the relationship between...
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The NASA Black Brant XII rocket lifts off with the KiNET-X experiment at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Photo: NASA Wallops/Terry Zaperach

NASA launches rocket in search of aurora answers

May 17, 2021
NASA launched one of its largest sounding rockets Sunday from an East Coast facility in an experiment led by a University of Alaska Fairbanks...
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HyLab’s hyperspectral system, or HySpex, consisting of cameras integrated with an inertial measurement unit, a GPS and an airborne data acquisition system, is shown in an Alaska Department of Fish and Game Bush Hawk aircraft. Photo: Geophysical Institute

Geophysical Institute's HyLab is ready for the minerals hunt

May 7, 2021
Alaska contains minerals essential to the national defense, renewable energy and electronics industries. Finding those minerals, however, can be...
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Launcher at Pad 5 at Poker Flat Research Range. Photo: Tony Tyree, Poker Flat Research Range

NASA crews plan busy summer at Poker Flat Research Range

May 6, 2021
NASA’s annual maintenance visits to Poker Flat Research Range have resumed after a year off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with big projects this...
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New podcast highlights science and natural history in Alaska

May 5, 2021
The Alaska Science Pod was created to give voice to the people tackling big scientific questions in the Last Frontier. Through a series of...
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Yakutat Glacier in 2018. Alaska’s glaciers are a significant player in global glacier mass loss. Photo: Geophysical Institute

Geophysical Institute researchers involved in international sea level study

May 5, 2021
Three researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute are among the participants in an international paper that states...
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Rocket photo: The Black Brant XII is the largest of NASA’s sounding rockets. Sounding rockets take their name from the nautical term "to sound," which means to take measurements. NASA has used sounding rockets since 1959. Photo credit: NASA

Rocket launch could help answer big aurora mystery

April 23, 2021
Our sun’s impact on the solar system continues to present mysteries for researchers. Now, four University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical...
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The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy travels in the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, in this July 2011 photograph. The Beaufort Sea is one area of emissions research by atmospheric sciences professor Nicole Mölders. Credit: NASA/Kathryn Hansen

Emissions research tracks effects of increased Arctic shipping

April 15, 2021
The March blockage of the Suez Canal by a grounded massive cargo ship and the ensuing backlog of more than 300 other vessels brought attention...
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This 2016 image is a composite of two different Hubble observations. The auroras were photographed during a series of Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph far-ultraviolet-light observations taking place as NASA's Juno spacecraft approaches and enters into orbit around Jupiter. Credits: NASA

New research reveals secret to Jupiter’s curious aurora activity

April 9, 2021
Auroral displays continue to intrigue scientists, whether the bright lights shine over Earth or over another planet. The lights hold clues to the...
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The SeaHunter unmanned aerial aircraft took several thousand high-resolution photographs of the new Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway in the Northwest Territories, Canada, such as this photo of the ITH crossing Zed Creek. Photo courtesy of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

ACUASI completes remote sensing map of Canada’s first highway to the Arctic

April 7, 2021
Members of the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration (ACUASI) recently completed a high resolution map of the Inuvik...
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The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program site in Gakona, Alaska.

National Science Foundation funds creation of research observatory at Gakona

April 6, 2021
A five-year, $9.3 million National Science Foundation grant will allow the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute to establish a...
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Ice fog blankets Fairbanks. Debbie Dean file photo, University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Research targets chemical compound discovered in Fairbanks winter air

April 2, 2021
Research underway at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute and two other universities into Fairbanks wintertime air pollution...
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Damage along the coast of Port Valdez from a tsunami associated with the magnitude 9.2 earthquake of March 27, 1964, in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Tsunami awareness a priority nearly 60 years after last major Alaska event

March 25, 2021
It has been more than half a century since a major tsunami washed itself upon Alaska. The magnitude 9.2 earthquake of March 27, 1964, in Prince...
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Cathy Cahill, director of the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration, with UAF’s Griffon Aerospace Outlaw SeaHunter UAS at a conference. Photo courtesy Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration.

UAF’s unmanned aircraft and research highlighted for Alaska Senate

March 19, 2021
Leaders at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks delivered strong support of Alaska as an aerospace state in remarks...
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Glaciers such as the Yakutat in Southeast Alaska, shown here, have been melting since the end of the Little Ice Age, influencing earthquakes in the region. Photo by Sam Herreid.

Melting glaciers contribute to Alaska earthquakes

March 18, 2021
In 1958, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake triggered a rockslide into Southeast Alaska’s Lituya Bay, creating a tsunami that ran 1,700 feet up a...
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Thick wildfire smoke fills the sky along Chena Hot Springs Road in Fairbanks on Aug. 6, 2009. Photo by Rod Boyce.

Research aims to help Alaskans, visitors avoid wildfire smoke

March 17, 2021
Alaskans have become all too familiar with the choking wildfire smoke that has filled many summer days in recent years. Each time, they are left...
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Mount Redoubt, 108 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska, erupts on March 31, 2009. Photo credit by R. G. McGimsey, Alaska Volcano Observatory/U.S. Geological Survey

Study of Redoubt and other volcanoes improves unrest detection

March 11, 2021
Volcanologists do what they can to provide the public enough warning about impending eruptions, but volcanoes are notoriously unpredictable...
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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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