Astrophysicist Sabrina Savage of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center gives a "well done" pat to a recovered portion of a rocket launched April 17, 2024, from Poker Flat Research Range as part of NASA's new solar flare sounding rocket campaign. NASA photo

NASA sounding rocket chief praises first solar flare campaign from Poker Flat

May 14, 2024
The head of NASA’s sounding rocket program called April’s first launches of the space agency’s Solar Flare Sounding Rocket Campaign the “perfect...
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A red and rayed aurora was captured in a single 6-second exposure from Racibórz, Poland, May 10, 2024. The photographer's friend, seeing an aurora for the first time, is visible in the distance also taking images of the beautifully colorful nighttime sky. Photo by Mariusz Durlej via NASA APOD

Solar storm – not HAARP – creates intense auroral display

May 13, 2024
Night skies over the weekend erupted with vivid colors and awed people all around the globe as the solar wind from a severe geomagnetic storm...
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The aurora was photographed in 2014 during a series of Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph far-ultraviolet-light observations taking place as NASA’s Juno spacecraft approached and entered into orbit around Jupiter. Image by NASA, ESA and J. Nichols (University of Leicester)

UAF scientist’s research answers big question about our system’s largest planet

May 3, 2024
New discoveries about Jupiter could lead to a better understanding of Earth’s own space environment and influence a long-running scientific...
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Students from several Alaska communities, most of them remote and off the state's road system, presented their seismology research Wednesday. Photo by Rod Boyce

Alaska high school students present research at seismology conference

May 1, 2024
Radiation monitoring. Sea ice changes. Floodwater alerts. Coastal erosion. Speeding drivers. Landslide warnings. Thawing permafrost. Weather...
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Scientists attending the Seismological Society of America annual meeting in Anchorage view the hazardous Barry Arm landslide area while on a science cruise in Prince William Sound on April 29, 2024. Photo by Rod Boyce

Seismologists get close-up look at hazardous Barry Arm landslide

April 29, 2024
A high point for about 300 seismologists, geologists and other scientists gathering in Anchorage for a weeklong conference came Monday, April 29...
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The mini-science camp on the Beaufort Sea ice two-thirds of a mile north of a thin snow-covered spit above Elson Lagoon, about 10 miles east of Utqiagvik. Photo by Bryan Whitten

UAF researchers use drones to test new instrument for measuring sea ice thickness and its snow cover

April 29, 2024
BEAUFORT SEA ICE, near Utqiagvik, Alaska — The train of 10 snowmachines snaked slowly across the snow-covered sea ice toward the small tent far...
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Lava erupts at Pavlof Volcano, shown in a short-wave infrared false-color image from Jan. 19, 2022. A discussion of research into the eruption is one of more than 1,000 presentations at the Seismological Society of America annual meeting. Image by Hannah Dietterich, Alaska Volcano Observatory

UAF researchers head to Anchorage for nation’s largest seismology conference

April 25, 2024
University of Alaska Fairbanks seismologists, staff and students will be in Anchorage next week for the annual national meeting of the...
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National Science Foundation Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. National Science Foundation/Photo by Stephen Voss

NSF director: 'I am grateful to UAF’s partnership'

April 24, 2024
Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan became the 15th director of the National Science Foundation in June 2020 when the U.S. Senate confirmed his...
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The gear building where the SALVO team prepares for a trip to their snow research site. Photo by Rod Boyce

SALVO: Studying how snow melts on tundra and sea ice

April 20, 2024
The five University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers didn’t mind the constant wind that gusted to about 30 mph across the flat whiteness on...
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Citizen science photos (a, b) show a large open water zone on Dec. 20, 2020, on the Tanana River near Rosie Creek. The photos confirm the synthetic aperture radar classifications (c) from the same date. Red, blue and black arrows point to the same landmarks in all panels. Image from research paper.

New radar analysis method can improve winter river safety

April 12, 2024
University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers have developed a way to use radar to detect open water zones and other changes in Alaska’s frozen...
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UAF/GI photo by Eric Marshall

New GINA satellite antenna gets lifted into place at UAF

April 8, 2024
A crane hoisted a new 3-meter antenna atop the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ engineering building Saturday, increasing the capability of the...
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University of Alaska Fairbanks Facilities Services employees Mckinley Hearns, left, and Shae Patterson assemble the reflector dish of the new Geographic Information Network of Alaska antenna on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Photo by Bryan Whitten

New rooftop antenna to be installed on UAF Usibelli Building

April 5, 2024
A new 3-meter antenna will be installed atop the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ engineering building as early as Saturday. The antenna is for...
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A solar flare flashes in the sun’s corona on Feb. 21, 2024. The image shows a blend of 171 Angstrom and 131 Angstrom light, subsets of extreme ultraviolet light that highlight plasma loops in the corona and extremely hot material in flares, respectively. Photo by NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory

NASA rockets to gather sun data in rare daytime Poker Flat launches

April 4, 2024
Two rockets are set to launch within minutes of each other from Poker Flat Research Range this month in NASA’s first campaign to study solar...
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Chris Maio, director of the UAF Arctic Coastal Cooperative, speaks on the first day of a weeklong meeting of participants in the Alaska Coastal Cooperative for Co-producing Transformative Ideas and Opportunities in the North. Photo by Rod Boyce

Alaska communities take next steps in UAF-led climate change response

April 2, 2024
About 50 people from Alaska and Canada gathered in Anchorage on Monday to begin a weeklong retreat. Their goal is to accelerate the work of...
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Alaska Earthquake Center chart

Looking back 60 years: How the Great Alaska Earthquake compares

March 27, 2024
The March 27, 1964, Great Alaska Earthquake remains the second-largest ever recorded in the world. Each earthquake releases energy when rock...
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Research professor Andy Mahoney of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, left, stands near the USS Hampton’s sail during Operation Ice Camp in March 2024. A civilian employee with the Navy’s Arctic Submarine Lab stands in front of the sail. Photo courtesy of Andy Mahoney

Ice experts aid US military in Arctic Ocean exercise

March 22, 2024
Camping on an Arctic Ocean ice floe can be risky. Choosing a safe spot is critical in a setting where the surface can crack open. Preparing for...
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Denise Thorsen explains some of the work underway by students in the University of Alaska Fairbanks Space Systems Engineering Program earlier this year. Photo by Rod Boyce

UAF space engineering program director wins NASA prize

March 19, 2024
The advisor of the University of Alaska Fairbanks space engineering program is one of 20 winners of a NASA prize to expand the agency’s...
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A theropod track lies in rock near the west bank of the Kukpowruk River. Photo courtesy of Anthony Fiorillo

Alaska dinosaur tracks reveal a lush, wet environment

March 8, 2024
A large find of dinosaur tracks and fossilized plants and tree stumps in far northwestern Alaska provides new information about the climate and...
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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.

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University of Alaska Fairbanks
Fairbanks, AK 99775

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