Alaska
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NASA
New NASA Earth Missions Gear Up to Start Science Flights
Landslides in Alaska. Air quality in Atlanta. Fire clouds out West. From the Arctic fringes to farm country, NASA’s newest class of suborbital Earth Venture missions is gearing up to deliver science that will benefit communities in the United States and beyond. The six projects will mobilize hundreds of scientists and pilots from NASA, the U.S. Navy, universities, and other institutions over the next several years. While the investigations range across topics, a defining feature of suborbital missions is the use of sensors mounted on aircraft. Airborne remote sensing serves as a bridge between ground-based instruments and satellites. Data collected via planes, helicopters, drones, and balloons can fill in gaps…
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NASA
Wild, Scenic, and Increasingly Rusty
From declines in annual sea ice extent to the greening of the tundra, environmental change has been unfolding incrementally in the Arctic over decades. Some shifts, however, have come on more abruptly. Satellite, aerial, and ground-based surveys spanning more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) across Alaska’s Brooks Range have observed stream water changing from clear to orange in more than 200 watersheds.…
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Drone
Dryad Networks Reaches XPRIZE Wildfire Finals Milestone, Demonstrating Autonomous Detection and Suppression of Wildfires in Alaska
Dryad Networks, the leader in ultra-early wildfire detection technology, today announced a major achievement in the finals of the Autonomous Wildfire Response track of XPRIZE Wildfire, a four-year, $11 million global competition accelerating new solutions to end destructive wildfires. Autonomous wildfire suppression can prevent catastrophic wildfiresShare Competing against just two other finalists selected from an original field of nearly 300 teams…
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NASA
Signs of Thaw in the Bering Sea
When clouds parted in early June 2026, satellites glimpsed hints of summer’s approach in the Bering Sea off Alaska’s coast. Sea ice, broken into small fragments, took a few final spins on its way to melting completely, while rivers swollen with snowmelt washed sediment and organic material out to sea. These images, acquired with the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite…
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NASA
Ice Moves Out of Aniak
Thawing may be a welcome sight for Alaskans following a remarkably cold winter and early spring in much of the state. But with melting comes the threat of rapid flooding in low-lying areas as river ice breaks up and periodically jams. The landscape along the Kuskokwim River appeared frozen in a Landsat 9 image acquired on April 21, 2026 (left). According to observations published…
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NASA
Winter’s End Is Written in the Clouds
Winter 2026 roared to an end in southern Alaska as parts of the coast saw below-normal temperatures and bouts of moderate to heavy snow. Viewed from above, the region’s atmospheric instability was apparent in the striking display of cloud formations just offshore. A NASA satellite captured this image of the clouds on March 19, 2026, the final day of astronomical…
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NASA
Portable Planetarium takes Thousands of Alaskan Students on a Cosmic Adventure
Exploring the Cosmos and Inspiring Young Minds From January through June 2025, the Education Outreach Office at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute (GI) continued its mission of bringing science to life by delivering the magic of its portable planetarium to communities across Alaska. This year, they reached over 1,807 students, educators, and participants through engaging, interactive astronomy experiences.…
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NASA
Linking Satellite Data and Community Knowledge to Advance Alaskan Snow Science
Seasonal snow plays a significant role in global water and energy cycles, and billions of people worldwide rely on snowmelt for water resources needs, including water supply, hydropower, agriculture, and more. Monitoring snow water equivalent (SWE) is critical for supporting these applications and for mitigating damages caused by snowmelt flooding, avalanches, and other snow-related disasters. However, our ability to measure…
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NASA
Eclipses, Auroras, and the Spark of Becoming: NASA Inspires Future Scientists
In the heart of Alaska’s winter, where the night sky stretches endlessly and the aurora dances across the sky in a display of ethereal beauty, nine undergraduate students from across the United States were about to embark on a transformative journey. These students had been active ‘NASA Partner Eclipse Ambassadors’ in their home communities, nine of more than 700 volunteers…
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NASA
NASA to Launch Three Rockets from Alaska in Single Aurora Experiment
Three NASA-funded rockets are set to launch from Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska, in an experiment that seeks to reveal how auroral substorms affect the behavior and composition of Earth’s far upper atmosphere. The experiment’s outcome could upend a long-held theory about the aurora’s interaction with the thermosphere. It may also improve space weather forecasting, critical as the…
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