University of Alaska Fairbanks

VIIRS as an Arctic Nightlight

Posted 16 April 2013 by Liz O'Connell

by Liz O'Connell for Frontier Scientists During winter in the Arctic it’s “night” almost all the time, but thanks to the new Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band (DNB) we no longer have to be in the dark about what’s going on with the weather. Here is a VIIRS/DNB image of the Alaska region on December 31, 2012 generated by GINA, Geographic Information Network of Alaska, at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Although it looks like a typical... Read more

Posted in AGU Fall Meeting, General, Weather in Alaska |

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New UAF program draws young artists into science

Posted 27 November 2012 by Liz O'Connell

by Marie Thoms Artists and scientists often share a common goal: making the invisible visible. Yet artistically talented students, especially girls, often shy away from scientific careers. A new four-year program led by the University of Alaska Fairbanks blends the art, biology and physics of color into a series of summer academies, science cafes and activity kits designed to inspire art-interested students to enter careers in science. “Research suggests that girls who gravitate toward art often have strong visual-spatial abilities... Read more

Posted in General |

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Guillemots, and the Edge of the Ice

Posted 20 November 2012 by Liz O'Connell

Laura Nielsen for Frontier Scientists The Bering Sea region hosts over 90% of seabirds breeding in the continental United States. Most of those birds are hardy migrators, breeding on Alaska's coast in the warm season and then departing south, chased away by the cold weather. One group which remains is Guillemots, a type of seabird species which belongs to the auks -- the family includes murres, murrelets, auklets and puffins. Guillemots are special. They don't migrate to far southern latitudes... Read more

Posted in Arctic's Amazing Birds, Climate Change Watch |

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ARSC Fish: CRAY Supercomputer Enables Scientific Discovery

Posted 7 November 2012 by Liz O'Connell

Fairbanks, Alaska, November 6, 2012-- The Arctic Region Supercomputing Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has a new CRAY Supercomputer Called FISH. As ARSC transitions from a centralized machine to a strategically upgradeable hybrid system, they advance scientific discovery. It is a large scale upgrade to benefit research. Scientists who use this up-to-date technology to drive their projects undertake space physics, aurora borealis, climate modeling, oceanographic circulation models, sea-ice models, ecological modeling, and hydrological modeling. The image shown above is a simulation of the... Read more

Posted in Computational Science |

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Scientists identify likely origins of vertebrate air breathing

Posted 30 October 2012 by Liz O'Connell

by Marie Thoms University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists have identified what they think is the ancestral trait that allowed for the evolution of air breathing in vertebrates. They presented their research at the 42nd annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience Oct. 17 in New Orleans. “To breathe air with a lung, you need more than a lung, you need neural circuitry that is sensitive to carbon dioxide,” said Michael Harris, a UAF neuroscientist and lead researcher on a project... Read more

Posted in General |

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A Portal to Toolik Field Station

Posted 17 October 2012 by Liz O'Connell

Laura Nielsen for FrontierScientists We know that the Arctic holds unique climate conditions and a complex carbon balance. Tundra fires and thawing permafrost release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, while unique ocean currents and cold waters prompt higher levels of ocean acidification. Methane emerges from sea and soil. The Arctic sea ice cover shrinks to increasingly startling extents. Plant life changes in response to altered conditions, and wildlife struggles to adapt. Understanding Arctic systems is a vital piece of climate science that can provide policy makers the knowledge... Read more

Posted in Climate Change Watch, Computational Science, Modeling Arctic Waters, Permafrost |

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Ocean Acidification

Posted 10 October 2012 by Liz O'Connell

Will ocean acidification spell a watery grave for vital parts of marine ecosystems? Marine ecologist Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, named ocean acidification global warming's "equally evil twin." * Burning fossil fuels — coal, oil, natural gas — cutting down forests and other post-industrial revolution human activities have added more than 500 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere over the last 200 years. This anthropogenic (human-caused) increase in CO2 and other greenhouse... Read more

Posted in Climate Change Watch, Computational Science, Modeling Arctic Waters |

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Cray Inc. provides “Fish” for Arctic Region Supercomputing Center (ARSC).

Posted 2 October 2012 by Liz O'Connell

Fairbanks, Alaska, October 2, 2012-- “As Alaska’s Research University UAF (University of Alaska Fairbanks) must continue to provide the best tools, ARSC is one of the most important tools available,” said Brian Rogers, Chancellor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. And the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center’s new tool is a Cray supercomputer dubbed “Fish.” Watch the video a Cray Supercomputer Called Fish. “There was a bunch of things in favor of a Cray XK6m™ supercomputer” said Greg Newby ARSC director. “Looking... Read more

Posted in Computational Science |

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Glaciologists help with recovery of human remains

Posted 11 September 2012 by Liz O'Connell

by Ned Rozell It’s not often that glaciologists help with the recovery of long-lost human remains, but military officials recently enlisted Martin Truffer for that purpose. The University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute professor and graduate student Dave Podrasky came up with useful information on a Southcentral glacier that held plane wreckage and the remains of military men killed in a crash 60 years ago. Colony Glacier, about 50 miles east of Anchorage, flows beneath the impact point of a... Read more

Posted in Arctic Archaeology, Climate Change Watch, General, Modeling Arctic Waters |

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Modeling Arctic Waters from the Bering Sea through the Bering Strait to the Arctic Ocean.

Posted 4 September 2012 by Liz O'Connell

Fairbanks, Alaska, September 4, 2012--- Three videos introduce the oceanographic modeling work from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). The video Modeling Ice in the Arctic, shows a regional ice model coupled with a global climate model. “The ice is not as stiff as it used to be,” said Kate Hedstrom, Oceanographic specialist from the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center at UAF. “We’ve had discussions about how the nature of the pack ice is changing from being really solid and thick... Read more

Posted in Climate Change Watch, Computational Science, Modeling Arctic Waters |

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