It is early February, about the date Glenn Shaw once noted as the first day at Fairbanks’ latitude you could feel the tickle of the sun on your cheek. Northern Alaskans don’t want to expose their faces today (Glenn, a retired atmospheric scientist at the Geophysical Institute is fine — his cheeks are now in […]
Caribou wearing cameras around their necks have filmed a secret world of mushroom nibbling, desperate head-shaking during bug episodes, and nuzzling of wet newborns seconds after they fall to the tundra. The caribou cams gave biologists who teamed up from several agencies a new look at the Fortymile herd. Those caribou roam in the highlands […]
At the end of this month, Vladimir Romanovsky will retire after 30 years as a professor and permafrost scientist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute. This comes at a time when people — finally — no longer squint at him with a puzzled look when he mentions what he studies. Permafrost is ground […]
A recent winter storm that featured a heavy rainfall caused hardships for many animals of Interior Alaska, but some people found the event fascinating. Two men who live up here and study the cryosphere — the frozen and snow-covered portion of the Earth’s surface — squinted for a closer look at what the storm […]