The Alaska Satellite Facility at the University of Alaska Fairbanks will continue to operate NASA’s Distributed Active Archive Center for synthetic aperture radar under a contract that extends the work through 2028. NASA announced the $70 million contract award on June 22. The contract takes effect Saturday, July 1. The archive center is one of […]
CREAMER’S FIELD STATE MIGRATORY WATERFOWL REFUGE — Five scientists have padded their way on snowshoes into the middle of this frozen swamp in Fairbanks. They are here to measure the pillowy, perfect snowpack that has fallen here, flake by flake, since last October. Not far away, a dog musher yells “gee” to urge her lead […]
Earth has earthquakes, Venus has venusquakes. Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, working with NASA, are helping create a Venusian seismometer that can operate long enough in that planet’s extremes to provide insight into its seismicity. It’s a major challenge. Venus has surface temperatures of 900 degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough to melt […]
NASA’s retired Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) reentered Earth’s atmosphere at 11:04 p.m. EST on Sunday, Jan. 8, after almost four decades in space. For 21 of its years in orbit, the ERBS actively investigated how the Earth absorbed and radiated energy from the Sun, and made measurements of stratospheric ozone, water vapor, nitrogen dioxide, […]