This bird’s-eye view of Southcentral Alaska’s glaciers shows their speed as measured from space. Scientists are now able to follow surges and seasonal changes in glacier speed over this region using images from Landsat 8. Graphic by Mark Fahnestock.

Satellite provides global view of the speed of ice

December 12, 2016
Glaciers and ice sheets move in unique and sometimes surprising patterns, as evidenced by a new capability that uses satellite images to map the...
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Martin Truffer of UAF’s GI, left, holds a core tube which has brought up a sample of sediment from the sea floor below Pine Island Glacier. Photo by Dale Pomraning.

West Antarctica’s largest glacier started retreating in 1940s

November 28, 2016
Pine Island Glacier — about the size of Florida and one of the largest ice streams in Antarctica — has been thinning and retreating at an...
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This high-altitude shuttle system was dropped from a balloon at 70,000 feet and glided to the ground in Oregon under the supervision of ACUASI personnel on Sept. 26. Photo courtesy Near Space Corp.

ACUASI team tests near-space glider

November 22, 2016
Staff at the University of Alaska Fairbanks helped with a successful test of a high-altitude glider to help evaluate how advanced surveillance...
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Elise Chenot, of the Université de Bourgogne-Franche Comté, left, and Michael Whalen, of the UAF Geophysical Institute, examine a rock core from the Chicxulub crater in a lab in Bremen, Germany. Photo by Kevin Kurtz.

Asteroid impacts create habitats for life, study suggests

November 18, 2016
Around 65 million years ago, a massive asteroid crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. The impact and subsequent effects wiped out about 75 percent of...
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A harbor seal rests on an iceberg in Southeast Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. Photo by Jamie Womble.

Project tests method for monitoring ice conditions

November 16, 2016
Along Alaska’s southern coast, harbor seals use icebergs from tidewater glaciers as platforms to give birth, nurse, molt and avoid predators. As...
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A Chaparral Model 60 infrasound sensor with a pen for scale. Photo by Duncan Marriott.

Patent received for improved infrasound sensors

August 9, 2016
Jeffrey Rothman, supervisor of the electronics shop at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, has received a U.S. patent for...
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Nicole Mölders poses in her office at the Akasofu Building. Along with her career as an atmospheric scientist at UAF, she is also the author of a fashion blog, High Latitude Style. UAF photo by JR Ancheta.

UAF’s Mölders blends interests in science, style

July 6, 2016
When Geophysical Institute atmospheric scientist Nicole Mölders was growing up in West Germany, women older than 50 were all supposed to look the...
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The initial 10-node Penguin Computing cluster that launched Chinook in January 2016. UAF photo by Andy Cummins.

Murdock grant awarded for new computing system

June 22, 2016
The University of Alaska Fairbanks has received a two-year grant for an energy-efficient, high-performance computing cluster. The new Penguin...
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Chris Arp and Ben Jones drill into the ice of a shallow lake on Alaska’s North Slope. Photo by Guido Grosse, Alfred Wegener Institute.

Permafrost thawing below shallow Arctic lakes

June 16, 2016
New research conducted by scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Wyoming and other...
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A smoke plume rises from the 2012 Dry Creek Fire, as seen from UAF’s West Ridge. Photo courtesy Geophysical Institute.

Satellites, drones can help predict path of wildfire smoke

April 26, 2016
University of Alaska Fairbanks atmospheric scientists are developing ways to help forecast air quality in areas downwind from wildfires. Nicole...
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Pavlof volcano erupts in March 2016. The photograph was taken from Coast Guard 1713, a HC-130H Hercules aircraft based at Air Station Kodiak. Photo by Petty Officer Austin Torres.

Alaska volcano researchers refine ‘hearing’ to find eruptions

April 4, 2016
Seismologists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Alaska Volcano Network have developed a refined set of methods that allows them to detect and...
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This is the first statewide, high-resolution orthoimage of Alaska at a map scale of 1:24,000. It is made from 2.5-meter SPOT 5 satellite imagery. The project was led and managed by GINA and the Alaska Department of Natural Resources as part of the Alaska Statewide Digital Mapping Initiative.

New Alaska satellite image map released

March 30, 2016
A University of Alaska Fairbanks partnership with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources has made the first high-resolution satellite image...
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The Juneau Icefield forms a snow-covered expanse in the Coast Mountains north of Juneau. Photo by Joanna Young.

Study says Alaska could lose massive icefield by 2200

March 24, 2016
The massive icefield that feeds Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier may be gone by 2200 if warming trend predictions hold true, according to University...
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This high-resolution, enhanced color view of Pluto was taken on July 14, 2015. Photo by NASA.

UAF researcher gets data on Pluto’s atmosphere

March 17, 2016
Pluto has a thinner layer of atmosphere than previously thought, according to researchers who are sifting through the data gathered by NASA’s New...
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UAF facility to distribute new satellite’s imagery

March 16, 2016
NASA has announced that unprecedented, detailed radar views of Earth from a future satellite will be distributed by the Alaska Satellite Facility...
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Fannie Akpik, of Barrow, demonstrates the Inupiat Northern Lights Dance. Photo courtesy of Cultural Connections.

Aurora explored in film by scientists and Inupiat elders

March 1, 2016
When the northern lights are bright and strong, the ancestors are happy, according to Inupiaq elders highlighted in a new documentary by the...
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Nikolaevsk students learn about real-time earthquake data while visiting the Alaska Earthquake Center. Photo courtesy of EarthScope National Office.

Kenai students visit quake center 10 days after big temblor

February 15, 2016
High school students from the village of Nikolaevsk visited the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute on Feb. 3, just 10 days...
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An Aeryon Scout carries the methane gas detection payload during a test flight.

BP donates methane-detecting drone technology

February 9, 2016
The University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute and BP have developed a way to detect methane gas using aerial drones. The technology...
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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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