UAF Geophysical Institute

10/15/2026

Alaska Science Forum
No. 2,811
Oct. 15, 2026

Moving beyond Alaska Grown
By Sara Wilbur

Although I am a lover of Fairbanks, I am not particularly in love with mid-October Fairbanks. Fall’s yellow, shimmering leaves are now browning and dissolving underfoot, and my garden is crisped with old tomato vines and a few intrepid kale leaves, still reaching for the weakening sun.

On a recent chilly afternoon, I enjoyed lunch in my University of Alaska Fairbanks office: some of my late-season kale, black beans — origin Fred Meyer — and seasoned barley couscous from 100 miles down the road in Delta Junction.

I later walked down the hill toward and through the still-colorful oasis of Georgeson Botanical Garden. I was on my way to meet with Jodie Anderson, director of UAF’s Institute of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Extension, to learn about Alaska’s food system. After we settled into the garden office, Anderson opened our conversation with the story of Sunshine barley.

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🌾🥔 Read the rest of this week's Alaska Science Forum on UAF agriculture and the Alaska food system: https://www.gi.alaska.edu/alaska-science-forum/moving-beyond-alaska-grown

10/14/2026

The curtain is lifting on our second planetarium film premiere night! 🎥🍿Join us at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 14, for our new 17-min film, “Listening to Alaska,” at the Walt & Marita Babula Planetarium at UA Museum of the North.

After the film tonight, UAF Geophysical Institute aurora researcher Don Hampton will talk about how and why scientists launch sounding rockets from Poker Flat Research Range to study the aurora. 🚀

Capacity is limited to 65 seats, so buy your tickets early at the museum, or when doors open at 6:30 PM tonight before the film starts at 7 p.m.!

Can’t make it tonight? Visit the our website for the three more premiere nights on Oct. 28, Nov. 4, and Nov. 11 with new featured speakers. All “Field Notes to Fulldome” shows are Wednesdays at 7 p.m.

https://www.uaf.edu/museum/planetarium/shows/lta-lecture-series.php

10/09/2026

Alaska Science Forum
No. 2,810
Oct. 8, 2026

Time capsule: Hardwood, softwood, fuelwood
By Carla Helfferich

[Note: After finally cleaning my stovepipe last weekend, it feels like woodstove season at my cabin can officially (and safely) begin. Carla Helfferich wrote this wood power-focused Alaska Science Forum column on Oct. 3, 1990. — Sara Wilbur]

A strange thing happens at my house every October: the woodstove seems to get bigger. It’s been an inconspicuous little black thing in the corner of the living room all summer, but come snowfall, it’s a brute right out in the middle. And it looks hungry.

If there’s any science whatsoever in that observation, it’s psychology. Important objects may be perceived as larger than they really are, and that stove certainly grows in importance as temperatures decline.

Other sciences apply more exactly to heating with wood. Between recent bouts of hauling stove-length chunks of birch and spruce into winter shelter, I reviewed some of what scientist [and Alaska Science Forum founder] Neil Davis had to impart about wood as fuel in his book “Energy/Alaska.”

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🔥🪵 Read the rest of this week's Alaska Science Forum on the science of burning wood: https://www.gi.alaska.edu/alaska-science-forum/time-capsule-hardwood-softwood-fuelwood

10/08/2026

🍿🎬 It’s premiere night! We at UAF Geophysical Institute are proud to invite you at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7, to enjoy our new 17-min film, “Listening to Alaska,” at the Walt & Marita Babula Planetarium at UA Museum of the North.

Tonight, watch the film and stay for a great Q&A session with Alaska State Seismologist Michael West, director of the Alaska Earthquake Center. Ask him anything about their work on earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, and hazard monitoring.

🎟️Capacity is limited to 65 seats, so buy your tickets early at the museum, or when doors open at 6:30 PM tonight before the film starts at 7 p.m.!

Can’t make it tonight? Visit our website for info on four additional premiere nights on Oct. 17, Oct. 28, Nov. 4, and Nov. 11 with new featured speakers. All shows are Wednesdays at 7 p.m. More info here: https://www.uaf.edu/museum/planetarium/shows/lta-lecture-series.php

10/07/2026

Join the University of Alaska Museum of the North and the Geophysical Institute for an exciting premiere of the new 17-minute film “Listening to Alaska” at the Walt & Marita Babula Planetarium, paired with a talk and Q&A with a scientist on one of the topics featured in the film.

Earthquake scientists are featured in this new film, and tonight, Oct. 7, Dr. Michael West, Alaska State Seismologist and director of the Alaska Earthquake Center will share how his team monitors earthquakes across Alaska. Doors open at 6:30 PM, and the film premiere and talk start at 7 PM.

Tickets for a "Listening to Alaska" premiere event are $16 for adults, $12 for youth (17 and under)/UA faculty, staff and students, and $8 for museum members. Tickets are available now for purchase at the museum, in-person only, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Planetarium capacity is limited to 65 people, so please consider purchasing your tickets in advance of the show to ensure you get a seat! You may also purchase tickets at the door.

This series is in-person only. Minors must be accompanied by an adult. All presentations in the series are on Wednesdays starting at 7 PM:
– Oct. 7: Seismology, Michael West
– Oct. 14: Launching Rockets at Poker Flat, Don Hampton
– Oct. 28: Permafrost, Dmitry Nicolsky & Colby Wright
– Nov. 4: Paleontology, Patrick Druckenmiller
– Nov. 11: Archaeology/Ethnology & Bus 142, Angela Linn & Josh Reuther

10/07/2026

NASA's chief came to town to explore UAF's space places!

NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration Administrator Jared “Rook” Isaacman visited the University of Alaska Fairbanks on Monday and took in a lot of what UAF has to offer in space and aeronautics.

He visited an Alaska Space Grant Program Science Fair, the Walt & Marita Babula Planetarium at the University of Alaska Museum of the North and the NASA-funded Alaska Satellite Facility antenna on top of the Elvey Building.

He held a chilly, hibernating arctic ground squirrel, had an in-depth tour of Poker Flat Research Range, and took questions from the media.

At a well-attended town hall with students in UAF's Schaible Auditorium, Administrator Isaacman touched on the future of space exploration, innovation, technology and the opportunities available to the next generation before taking questions from the audience.

This event was part of NASA’s “Inspiration Tour” to celebrate the nation's strengths in space exploration and aeronautics.

We're glad you came to see us, Administrator Isaacman!

Maybe come up in winter, too, to see one of Poker Flat's incredible rocket launches!

University of Alaska

10/03/2026

Alaska has 6,700 miles of coastline, including its islands, and much of it is vulnerable to a devastating .

A new and interactive tsunami hazards tool created by the Alaska Earthquake Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute brings evacuation information, hazard maps and other community-specific resources into a single online location.

“A tsunami might not happen during our lifetime, maybe not even in our children's lifetime,” said Elena Troshina, the Alaska Earthquake Center’s tsunami scientist who led the project. “But a tsunami will happen.”

National Tsunami Warning Center
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
University of Alaska

A new and interactive tsunami hazards tool created by the Alaska Earthquake Center brings evacuation information, hazard maps and other community-specific resources into a single online location.

10/01/2026

Alaska Science Forum
No. 2,809
Oct. 1, 2026

Time capsule: The secret life of a red fox family
By Ned Rozell

Note: At the start of every walk, my dogs try to sneak away to “fox town,” a fox den on the other side of the pond near my cabin, and we often see the adult foxes trotting through the neighborhood. Hearing one of them bark the other evening, I was reminded of this March 26, 2020, story by Ned Rozell. He recently reported that foxes still use the den, but did not occupy it in summer 2026. — Sara Wilbur

One year ago, in a world with the same mountains and valleys but feeling very different, we made a discovery.

My wife, daughter, two neighbor kids, three dogs and I were out enjoying the freedom of crust skiing, when cold overnight temperatures freeze a melting snow pack. A hard top layer allows skiing anywhere, not just the trail system.

We skated between spruce trees to a cold spot about a mile from home, where a small hill of poplar trees and rose bushes rises from surrounding low tundra plants. There, we noticed a hole in the hill at knee level. The snow at the entrance to the opening was dirty, with tracks we couldn’t identify.

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🦊 🎥 Read the rest of this week's Alaska Science Forum on a red fox family near Fairbanks, Alaska: https://www.gi.alaska.edu/alaska-science-forum/time-capsule-secret-life-red-fox-family

10/01/2026

These seven gentleman are using the Geophysical Institute’s large globe to demonstrate the purpose of an experiment called Operation Barbizon, a collaboration between the Geophysical Institute and Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1971. The experiment was to use a shaped barium charge to illuminate Earth’s magnetic field line from Alaska to New Zealand. Hans Nielsen of the GI was one of the observers for the experiment, during which he was located on a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The experiment used a sounding rocket to take barium into the atmosphere and release it. The element barium oxidizes in air and reacts vigorously with water to form the hydroxide, releasing harmless hydrogen. Many experiments based at Poker Flat Research Range use barium to enable scientists to observe atmospheric conditions because the barium is visible once oxidized. In this case, the barium was released high enough in the atmosphere to be carried by Earth’s magnetic field all the way around the planet. It is only visible in the atmosphere at dawn and dusk, when the setting or rising sun shines on the hydrogen v***r released.

The gentlemen in the photo are, left to right, Neil Davis, GI; Milt Peeks, Los Alamos National Laboratory section leader and lead for the experiment; Wally Murcray; Hans Nielsen, GI; Russ Beach (standing on the chair); Col. Jim Wells, USAF and Los Alamos, one of the pilots of the three aircraft used in the experiment; and Gene Westcott, GI.

10/01/2026

SWEATing in the cold.

The ice tower of the UAF Alaska Center for UAS Integration at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute is where research into wintertime drone flight happens.

Ice buildup on wings reduces lift, a dangerous occurrence for airplanes, helicopters — and .

The tower, formally called the Supercooled Water Experimental Arctic Tower, or SWEAT, is integral not only for research into the conditions that drones can encounter.

Check the story and vid clips here:

https://www.gi.alaska.edu/news/ice-flights

University of Alaska

The ice tower of the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems In...