This file photo shows the research vessel Sikuliaq in Alaska's Resurrection Bay. UAF photo by Eric Engman

Sikuliaq underway on unique Alaska coastal research voyage

July 25, 2025
A 2,500-mile, 16-day research cruise that began Thursday in Seward and concludes in Nome aims to advance environmental research in coastal Alaska...
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Tiny crystals give insight to major eruption

July 23, 2025
Knowledge about Mount Augustine volcano’s past is key for understanding its next unrest — and it will erupt again. Its history says so. And...
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Research assistant professor Florian Hofmann of the UAF Geophysical Institute’s Geochronology Lab works on the lab’s argon mass spectrometer. Photo by JR Ancheta

UAF critical minerals proposal advances in federal funding competition

July 14, 2025
A University of Alaska Fairbanks proposal to reduce the United States’ dependency on foreign sources of minerals critical to the technology and...
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A steam plume with minor ash extends northeast from Augustine Volcano on Jan. 30, 2006. Photo by R.G. McGimsey/Alaska Volcano Observatory/U.S. Geological Survey

Tiny crystals provide insight to massive 2006 Augustine Volcano eruption

July 11, 2025
Samples of extremely small crystal clots, each polished to the thickness of a human hair or thinner, have revealed information about the process...
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The St. George Creek Fire burns on June 21, 2025. The fire is about 40 miles south of Fairbanks. UAF/GI photo by Martin Stuefer

Alaska climate report: June jumped from cool to hot, hot, hot

July 11, 2025
June began cool and wet but rapidly changed to hot and dry at the midpoint, with wildfires bursting out across the state, according to the...
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Planetarium construction continues at the west side of the University of Alaska Museum of the North on UAF’s Troth Yeddha’ Campus in Fairbanks. UAF/GI photo by Rod Boyce

Planetarium construction begins, Murdock Trust joins project

June 24, 2025
Construction has begun on a new 65-seat planetarium at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The project, approved by the UA Board of Regents in...
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A University of Alaska Fairbanks professor has published a new mathematical framework for three-dimensional time. TheDigitalArtist/Pixabay

UAF professor’s work is a step toward elusive ‘theory of everything’

June 18, 2025
Time, not space plus time, might be the single fundamental property in which all physical phenomena occur, according to a new theory by a...
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Alaska Earthquake Center Director Michael West testified at a congressional subcommittee hearing on May 20, 2025, regarding bills for volcano, earthquake and landslide hazard programs. Photo taken from subcommittee video.

Alaska Earthquake Center director at Congress: Renew three hazards programs

June 17, 2025
Reauthorizing federal programs that help warn of volcano eruptions, earthquakes and landslides is essential for reducing fatalities and the...
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The Abisko, Sweden, container observatory. Photo by Kylee Branning

New triple-observatory network completes first winter of work

June 11, 2025
Three new Arctic mini-observatories located across the globe from Alaska have completed their first winter studying the upper atmosphere’s wind...
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UAF Geophysical Institute Director Bob McCoy and Alaska Aerospace Corp. CEO John Oberst sign a memorandum of understanding in front of the GI building on Thursday, June 10, 2025. UAF/GI photo by Bryan Whitten:

Geophysical Institute, Alaska Aerospace to boost space opportunity

June 10, 2025
The University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute and Alaska Aerospace Corp. will work together under a new agreement to jointly develop...
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Rime ice covers brush on a hill above Toolik Lake, Alaska, on June 8, 2025. Photo by Julie Stricker

Alaska climate report: May 2025 kept its cool

June 10, 2025
The month of May was noticeably cooler around Alaska, but data from the Alaska Climate Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks show...
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UAF graduate student researcher Kylee Branning was one of two people inside a windowless 40-foot shipping container converted into a high-tech science observatory near the southern edge of frozen Lake Torneträsk, Sweden’s sixth-largest.
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Snow, cold, reindeer and long hours

June 2, 2025
Wind blew viciously across this isolated spot of northern Sweden on Feb. 1, 2024, driving the snow near horizontal. Gusts of 30 to 40 mph whipped...
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A new and unique system of mini-observatories, which began operating in late 2024, allows scientists to map vastly larger areas of the far upper atmosphere while also providing greater detail.
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Wind at the edge of space

June 1, 2025
A new and unique system of mini-observatories, which began operating in late 2024, allows scientists to map vastly larger areas of the far upper...
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Matanuska Glacier, about 100 miles northeast of Anchorage, terminates in a lake in June 2024. UAF photo by Leif Van Cise

Study finds Alaska, rest of Earth, to lose most of glacier mass

May 29, 2025
An international study has found that Earth’s glaciers will lose 76% of their 2020 mass under current climate policy pledges made by nations...
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A glacier goes on the run in Greenland

May 28, 2025
Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland is one of Earth’s fastest-moving glaciers and one of the Greenland Ice Sheet’s largest glaciers. It produces...
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UAF graduate student researcher Amy Jenson at one of the instrument sites on Jakobshavn Glacier. Photo by Martin Truffer

Fast-moving Greenland glacier has the attention of UAF scientists

May 28, 2025
A powerhouse of ice flows rapidly on Greenland’s west coast, heading toward the ocean. Some of Earth’s largest icebergs are produced here...
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Visitors at the 2022 HAARP open house walk to the facility’s 33-acre antenna array. UAF/GI photo

HAARP to hold fifth public open house Saturday, June 14

May 23, 2025
The public can learn how scientists study Earth’s ionosphere, the region between the planet’s lower atmosphere and the vacuum of space, at a...
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Roger Topp, right, and his team discuss the setup for a model of the antenna that sits atop the University of Alaska Fairbanks Elvey Building. UAF/GI photo by Bryan Whitten

New exhibit explores Earth’s changes and beauty through radar data

May 16, 2025
The University of Alaska Museum of the North and Alaska Satellite Facility are presenting a new exhibit to showcase how synthetic aperture radar...
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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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