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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Thaw-driven subsidence can lead to thermokarst and formation of thermokarst ponds and thaw ponds. UAF Ph.D. student Nick Hasson looks at a thaw pond just north of the University of Alaska Fairbanks main campus. It is forming in an area underlain by massive ice wedges. Photo by Louise Farquharson

Thawing permafrost causes ground to sink in cold regions; scientists urge action

January 24, 2025
More needs to be done to better understand rapidly changing Arctic landscapes that are sinking as climate-driven permafrost thaw penetrates...
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UAF professor Franz Meyer presents “Launching NISAR: NASA's Biggest Earth Observation Mission” as part of the 2024 Science for Alaska talk series. The 2025 talk series begins with a kickoff event on Thursday, Jan. 30, at Black Spruce Brewing Co. UAF/GI photo by LJ Evans

33rd annual Science for Alaska talks and outreach events announced

January 21, 2025
The University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute will host free public science talks over the next few weeks, featuring Alaska stories...
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Two of three payloads being prepared to investigate three types of aurora sit inside the payload assembly area at Poker Flat Research Range on Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. Photo by Bryan Whitten

Three rockets will ignite Poker Flat’s 2025 launch season

January 16, 2025
Three NASA sounding rockets are set to launch from Poker Flat Research Range as early as Tuesday to learn more about three types of aurora —...
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Explore

Unraveling the aurora's birth

December 20, 2024
More than a week of waiting for the right conditions in a short nightly launch window had come to this: a few remaining minutes on the final...
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New research shows that three sites spread along an approximately 620-mile portion of today’s Denali Fault in Alaska were once a smaller united geologic feature indicative of the final joining of two land masses. That feature was then torn apart by millions of years of tectonic activity.
Explore

Big stretch on the Denali Fault

December 19, 2024
New research shows that three sites spread along an approximately 620-mile portion of today’s Denali Fault in Alaska were once a smaller united...
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The northern lights adorn the sky over the UAF Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station early Sunday morning, April 21, 2024. UAF photo by Eric Engman

First results from 2021 rocket launch shed light on aurora’s birth

December 19, 2024
Newly published results from a 2021 experiment led by a University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist have begun to reveal the particle-level...
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Associate professor Sean Regan holds a copy of the December edition of Geology, which features his latest research in its cover photo. Photo by Bryan Whitten

Denali Fault tore apart ancient joining of two landmasses

December 19, 2024
New research shows that three sites spread along an approximately 620-mile portion of today’s Denali Fault were once a smaller united geologic...
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Setting up the UAF Research booth. Photo by Rod Boyce

What a week in D.C. for AGU24

December 18, 2024
Nearly 90 University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute researchers — faculty, students and staff — made just over 100 oral and poster...
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The ionosphere and aurora wrap around Earth, as seen from the International Space Station. Photo courtesy of NASA

NASA-funded project looks for answers about aurora’s energy

December 3, 2024
Most electrons that create the aurora have a moderate amount of energy, but scientists want to know more about how electrons on either side on...
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A photograph made during fieldwork along the Yukon River in central Alaska in 2023 shows the four-toed track. Photo courtesy of Anthony Fiorillo

Fossil tracks push range of large bird northward

November 4, 2024
Scientists from Fairbanks, New Mexico and Japan have discovered the first reported fossilized tracks of a large four-toed bird that inhabited...
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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 aims to make Alaska a critical minerals hub

November 1, 2024
The University of Alaska Fairbanks has a new research unit that aims to make Alaska a global leader in research and development of critical...
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Clusters of “fairy circles” in Western Australia have been found to seep hydrogen gas. The image was acquired by the Landsat 9 satellite on June 27, 2023. Landsat 9 is a partnership between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. Image courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory

UAF workshop will look at Alaska’s geologic hydrogen

October 25, 2024
Reshaping Alaska’s energy future with geologic hydrogen is the subject of a three-day workshop next week hosted by the University of Alaska...
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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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