A NASA sounding rocket soared high from a launchpad in Norway on Wednesday morning in a decades-old quest to understand the cause of a persistent dense patch of upper atmosphere on Earth’s sun-facing side. The Cusp Region Experiment-2, or C-REX-2, is headed by space physicist Mark Conde of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute […]
The research vessel Sikuliaq navigated among and around the chunks and slabs of Arctic sea ice above Alaska for several weeks on two voyages this fall, breaking through frozen slabs when it had to just as its sturdy hull is designed to do. Satellite imagery produced at the Geographic Information Network of Alaska, or GINA, at the University […]
A science cruise led by a University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher to investigate the origin of the Arctic Ocean’s Amerasia Basin has come to an end, with the research vessel Sikuliaq back at Nome after more than seven weeks at sea. The voyage was the Sikuliaq’s northernmost to date. It sailed to just over 79 degrees […]
Roads, bridges, pipelines and other types of infrastructure in Alaska and elsewhere in the Arctic will deteriorate faster than expected due to a failure by planners to account for the structures’ impact on adjacent permafrost, according to research by a University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute permafrost expert and others. The researchers say planners must […]
Residents of a remote Alaska coastal community will fly unmanned aircraft systems to support the Coast Guard’s oil spill response, fuel tank inspection, and search and rescue efforts. The project, supported by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, will also provide data to enhance local decision-making on environmental and community issues. Seven residents of Unalakleet, about […]
NASA’s annual maintenance visits to Poker Flat Research Range have resumed after a year off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with big projects this year including removal of a little-used launcher and the transfer of one radar to another facility. One crew has finished its work and departed. That crew focused on the launch facility’s […]
It has been more than half a century since a major tsunami washed itself upon Alaska. The magnitude 9.2 earthquake of March 27, 1964, in Prince William Sound unleashed tsunamis that devastated coastal communities. They wiped out the village of Chenega and wrought damage upon Whittier, Seward, Kodiak and Valdez. A tsunami that day reached […]
Leaders at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks delivered strong support of Alaska as an aerospace state in remarks Wednesday to the Alaska Senate Labor and Commerce Committee. Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer had announced that Wednesday, March 17, 2021, was Aerospace Day at the Alaska State Capitol. Alaska’s recognized leadership in the […]
Volcanologists do what they can to provide the public enough warning about impending eruptions, but volcanoes are notoriously unpredictable. Alerts are sometimes given with little time for people to react. That may soon change. Work led by research assistant professor Társilo Girona, with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, has revealed a method by […]