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  • Two side-by-side images show NASA sounding rockets launching 30 seconds apart from Poker Flat Research Range, their bright trails rising past a faint aurora.

    Third 2026 mission launches from Poker Flat Research Range

    February 10, 2026

    A tandem of NASA sounding rockets blasted off from Poker Flat Research Range at about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday on a mission to better understand how changes in the ionosphere influence the aurora's appearance.

  • Composite image consisting of portraits of Hajo Eicken and Scott Rupp

    IARC director tapped to lead Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute

    February 10, 2026

    Hajo Eicken, director of the ÃÛÌÒTVInternational Arctic Research Center, has been selected as scientific director at Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. Longtime ÃÛÌÒTV researcher and IARC leader Scott Rupp will step in as IARC's interim director.

  • On a partly cloudy day, two women in ball caps and blue coats lean over a tranquilized light brown bear with a red bag over its head. The bear is lying on tundra of low shrubs and grasses.

    The scent of barren ground grizzly

    February 09, 2026

    Unlike most of us, Jordan Pruszenski has held in her arms the following wild animals: wolves, caribou, beavers, muskrats, musk oxen, emperor geese and moose.

  • Kotzebue wind and solar farm

    New interactive map showcases Alaska's microgrid energy systems

    February 04, 2026

    A free digital tool from the ÃÛÌÒTVgives users a comprehensive look at energy systems in Alaska's microgrid communities.

  • Solar power arrays flank a field of ripe kale under a blue sky

    Seminar gives overview of agrivoltaics project in Alaska

    February 04, 2026

    A ÃÛÌÒTVresearcher will highlight the first year of activities at Alaska's inaugural commercial-scale agrivoltaics research site.

  • A woman wearing a lab coat and latex gloves adds samples to an array of test tubes in a laboratory.

    Enjoying that soda? New research can reveal how much you drink

    February 03, 2026

    A ÃÛÌÒTVscientist has shown that a chemical marker in the body can reliably reveal how much added sugar and how many sugar-sweetened drinks a person consumes. The marker works in people of different ages, sexes, races and diets.

  • Rocket launches from Poker Flat Research Range

    First rocket of 2026 takes flight at Poker Flat

    January 30, 2026

    A two-stage NASA sounding rocket shot skyward from Poker Flat Research Range at 4:20 a.m. today as part of a long-running project to learn more about aurora-produced nitric oxide in the upper atmosphere.

  • Viewed from an aircraft, a closely-packed group of buildings sit on a small spit of snow-covered land surrounded by sea ice. In the distance, beyond the ice, is an area of open water.

    Twenty years of Arctic report cards

    January 30, 2026

    I sat in on the first Arctic Report Card press conference 20 years ago, and most of the years since. Here are some of the reported changes in the top of the world that have affected the rest of the globe.

  • A woman holds a large pink peony up to her face with the sun shining from behind

    Seminar highlights botanical garden's role in food system

    January 30, 2026

    A presentation by the Georgeson Botanical Garden's directing manager will highlight the garden's role in strengthening food security in the state. Lacey Higham's presentation is part of the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Institute of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Extension series "Circumpolar Connections: A Dialogue on Arctic Food Systems."

  • Scott Bailey of Virginia Tech stands with a portion of the rocket for his Polar Night Nitric Oxide, or PolarNOx, mission at Poker Flat Research Range north of Fairbanks. Photo by Bryan Whitten

    Three missions, four rockets: Poker Flat ready for launches

    January 27, 2026

    The 2026 Poker Flat Research Range launch season opens this week with the first of three missions studying the aurora and the upper atmosphere.

  • A man with a blond beard stands against a blue sky background while wearing a heavy red-and-black checkered wool coat and a knit cap.

    Carl Benson embodied the far North

    January 23, 2026

    Carl Benson's last winter on Earth featured 32 consecutive days during which temperatures in his chosen town did not rise above zero Fahrenheit.

  • Presenter at a 2025 lecture

    Science for Alaska talks and events announced

    January 17, 2026

    The ÃÛÌÒTVGeophysical Institute will host free public science talks over the next few weeks, highlighting new climate research technology, an Alaska earthquake mystery solution, tidewater glaciers in Alaska and Greenland and a recent Bering Sea journey aboard the research vessel Sikuliaq.

  • A close-up photo captures shavings spraying from skate blades as a hockey player's legs, dressed in blue and gold, turn on an ice rink surface. The blade of a hockey stick slides on the rink in front of the ice skates.

    The physics of skating and slap shots

    January 16, 2026

    When two NHL hockey players collide, their pads and muscles can absorb enough energy to power a 100-watt light bulb for a minute and a half.

  • Ice fog in Fairbanks

    Alaska climate report: December's deep cold, deep snow

    January 14, 2026

    December was a busy weather month across the state.

  • A man holds a white bone, slightly larger than his hand, while another man reaches toward it. They're standing on a gray, sandy beach with the ocean and a mostly blue sky in the background.

    What killed the world's giants?

    January 08, 2026

    Most of the large animals that have walked the surface of Earth are no longer here. Why?

  • Several wolves look up while standing on snow in front of a thicket of leafless willows.

    The Riley Creek pack's sole survivor

    January 05, 2026

    As I was driving down the highway one spring day eight years ago, I saw a shaggy, gray-black canine cruising along on the snowpack, right next to the road.

  • A brown-haired boy wearing jeans and no shirt smiles and clenches his fists while standing next to an L.L. Bean-brand dial thermometer that indicates a temperature of 50 degrees below zero. A date stamp on the photo shows it was taken on Jan. 23, 1989.

    Fuzzy memories of a real Alaska cold snap

    December 26, 2025

    More than 35 years have ticked away since I turned my pickup left onto a North Pole road and noticed the clutch pedal remained on the floor. In a panic, I reached down with my mittened hand and pulled. The frozen plunger oozed back into position.

  • Images show four pieces of round, flat brown bones with rough surfaces.

    A whale of a mammoth tale

    December 19, 2025

    Matthew Wooller couldn't believe his ears after a California researcher rang his cellphone recently.

  • Researchers standing on a gravel pad in the Brooks Range with field gear

    Recent tundra fires 'exceed anything in past 3,000 years'

    December 16, 2025

    Wildfires on Alaska's North Slope were more active this past century than at any time in the past 3,000 years, according to a study recently published in the journal Biogeosciences.

  • Vegetation surrounding a creek is colored orange.

    Arctic Report Card celebrates 20 years

    December 16, 2025

    The 20th edition of the Arctic Report Card, published this week, continues to serve as a record of persistent and extraordinary warming in the North. As has been the case since its inception in 2006, ÃÛÌÒTVresearchers contributed essays documenting the changing Arctic.

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