UAF Geophysical Institute

09/04/2026

Alaska Science Forum
No. 2,805
Sept. 3, 2026

Time capsule: Color guard
By Carla Helfferich

Note: Regardless of how far they had advanced into autumn colors, all the leaves in Goldstream Valley on the morning of Sept. 3, 2026, were crusted with frost. Neither green willow nor purple fireweed leaves were spared, a first-frost possibility that Carla Helfferich explores in this week’s Alaska Science Forum time capsule from Sept. 11, 1997. Helfferich was the primary author for the forum from 1988 to 1994, when she hired Ned Rozell as her successor. 🍂

The weekend trip closed with a drive home through the Alaska Range, and the steep scenery around Isabel Pass looked as glorious as it usually does — except for one little flaw. Here and there, like pale flames along the creek banks, willows gleamed golden in the evening light. On the river's gravel bars and beside the road, dwarf fireweed leaves had turned a sunburned purple.

The first of August, and fall colors were already signaling a change of season on the high ground. "Not fair," I groused to the driver. "Why do the doggone plants have to start changing colors so early?"

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🍃 Read the rest of this week's Alaska Science Forum on changing leaves: https://www.gi.alaska.edu/alaska-science-forum/time-capsule-color-guard

08/28/2026

Are we really prepared for the biggest of the big solar storms? New research by scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, the The Catholic University of America, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Lancaster University, and the Air Force Research Laboratory - AFRL says we aren't.

Scientists have greatly underestimated the impact an extreme solar storm can have on Earth, according to new research.

08/28/2026

Alaska Science Forum
No. 2,804
August 28, 2026

Seeking the benefits of a parasite
By Haley Dunleavy

This time of year, when berries fill my thoughts, the early summer blooms that begot them are hazy in my mind. As I pick, I try to remember that my belly and bucket are full thanks to these flowers and their pollinators. And to my surprise, as I learned this summer, perhaps a parasitic plant is also to thank.

Enter woolly lousewort, or Pedicularis lanata. It’s one of Alaska’s dozen or so native parasitic plants. It reappears from its taproot in the tundra every spring with hairy leaves that huddle together to form a silvery, fluffy cone.

Despite lousewort’s humble emergence, its ecology could prompt scientists to reconsider the role of plant parasites as solely detrimental.

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🌸🐝 Read the rest of this week's Alaska Science Forum on the hemiparasitic woolly lousewort: https://www.gi.alaska.edu/alaska-science-forum/seeking-benefits-parasite

08/26/2026

Just two free public tours left this summer at the Geophysical Institute! 😎

Swing by the Elvey Building, 2156 Koyukuk Drive, at 1 p.m. today for a 1.5-hour tour. We'll visit the Alaska Earthquake Center, the Wilson Alaska Technical Center and the Alaska Satellite Facility.

🚙 Buy a UAF parking pass at the blue kiosk or online ($1.75/hr or $7/day): https://www.passportparking.com/
🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Tours are best for adults and kids aged 12 and older

Photo by JR Ancheta.

08/21/2026

Alaska Science Forum
No. 2,803
August 20, 2026

Uncorking the secrets of a tiny bottle of volcanic ash
By Rod Boyce

I opened the living room window in our rented Anchorage waterfront condominium on what began as a mild mid-August day in 1992.

I don’t remember what I was expecting when I looked across Cook Inlet that evening, but it wasn’t my face being speckled with volcanic ash.

Mount Spurr, 78 miles west of our living room window, erupted at 4:42 p.m. Aug. 18. By 7:45 p.m., its ash cloud had spread nearly 200 miles southeast and reached almost 9 miles high, darkening Anchorage more than two hours before sunset.

The volcano erupted in June, August and September that year after 39 years of slumber, but the August eruption had the greatest impact. It dropped about one-eighth of an inch of ash on Anchorage. People wore masks and put pantyhose on their vehicle air intakes.

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🌋🔬 Read the rest of this week's Alaska Science Forum on the 1992 Mount Spurr eruption: https://www.gi.alaska.edu/alaska-science-forum/uncorking-secrets-tiny-bottle-volcanic-ash

Alaska Volcano Observatory

08/14/2026

Alaska Science Forum
No. 2,802
August 14, 2026

Time capsule: Looking for a few good wood frogs
By Ned Rozell

***Note: This article was originally published 30 years ago, on Aug. 7, 1996. Brian Barnes and author Ned Rozell have since retired from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and scientists now know that the wood frog’s internal body temperature can dip to 0.6 degrees below zero Fahrenheit while overwintering. So the wood frogs are still out there, hopping around and readying for the long winter ahead!***

The office phone rang while Brian Barnes discussed with me his need for wood frogs. The caller's loudness forced Barnes, a University of Alaska Fairbanks associate professor of zoophysiology, to tilt the phone away from his ear.

"He's got some frogs," the voice boomed. "He don't wanna sell 'em. He wants to know what they eat."

The caller, a man from Fox, told Barnes that he and his son had read Barnes' unusual classified ad in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: "Wanted: Live wood frogs collected in or nearby Fairbanks. Needed for UAF study on wood frog overwintering biology. Where do they go? Will pay 25 cents for small; $1 each for large."

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🐸🥶 Read the rest of this week's throwback Alaska Science Forum column: https://www.gi.alaska.edu/alaska-science-forum/time-capsule-looking-few-good-wood-frogs

08/14/2026

It was a cool and wet July. 🌧

Talkeetna got soaked. The community nearly 200 air miles south of Fairbanks had its wettest July in just over a century, according to the monthly report from the Alaska Climate Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute.

The Alaska Climate Research Center issued its July summary for the state earlier this month. How wet did you get? And how far behind are your veggie and flower gardens this year?

🔗 https://www.gi.alaska.edu/news/alaska-climate-report-wet-and-cool-july

Photo: A rainy pedestrian bridge crosses Montana Creek in Juneau. Photo courtesy of the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.

08/12/2026

Did you see the partial solar eclipse this morning? The eclipse lasted 1 hour and 41 minutes, beginning at 7:37 AM AKDT, reaching a maximum coverage of about 37% to 48% at 8:27 AM, and ending at 9:18 AM.

Want more planetary exploration? A rare six-planet alignment is visible right now in the pre-dawn hours from August 11-13, 2026. Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune stretch across the sky from east to southwest. In Fairbanks, the best viewing window is roughly 60 to 90 minutes before local sunrise, around 3:30 to 4:30 a.m.

If this cosmic activity sparks curiosity and creativity, enjoy our new coloring book blending art and science:
☀ Download free printable pages
https://science.nasa.gov/learn/heat/resource/journey-through-the-heliosphere-the-sun-earth-system-in-color/
☀ Purchase a book ($10) and pick up at the UAF Geophysical Institute: https://bit.ly/NASA-coloringbook

Roughly 35% totality from Fairbanks through eclipse glasses right now. On my way to my third comps exam.

08/12/2026

Just a few free public tours left this summer at the Geophysical Institute! 😎

Swing by the Elvey Building, 2156 Koyukuk Drive, at 1 p.m. today for a 1.5-hour tour. We'll visit the Alaska Earthquake Center, the Wilson Alaska Technical Center and the Alaska Satellite Facility. Tours continue each Wednesday through Sept. 2.

🚙 Buy a UAF parking pass at the blue kiosk or online ($1.75/hr or $7/day): https://www.passportparking.com/

🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Tours are best for adults and kids aged 12 and older

Photo by LJ Evans.