March 5, 2021 at 10:25 am
NASA’s Super Soaker mission was basically an extreme DIY project: To better understand how noctilucent, or night-shining clouds form, researchers made one from scratch.
One frigid, predawn morning in January 2018, researchers launched a rocket hauling a bathtub’s worth of water from Poker Flat Research Range in Chatanika, Alaska. When this rocket was 85 kilometers off the ground, its water cargo exploded spraying the upper mesosphere with a plume of vapor that froze into a cloud of ice crystals. When such high-flying hazes of ice are illuminated by sunlight from beyond the horizon after sunset, they are seen in the dark sky as shimmery noctilucent clouds (
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Some trails within the borough limits get very heavy use by thousands of hikers, joggers, skiers, dogmushers, horseback riders, bicyclists and motorized users on ATVs and snowmachines. The original Trails Plan was adopted in 1985 to guide the protection and management of local trails – it was last updated in 2006.
Taryn Oleson-Yelle is the lead planner for R&M Consultants, Inc., the engineering and planning contractors who will get public input and draw up the revised plan with the Trails Advisory Commission.
“I love trails; that’s a huge reason I moved to Alaska in the first place, and so, the ability to work with you who have such investment in good trails, good environmental management and user-friendliness is really exciting.”
Diehl leads Kusko 300, Bailey leads Summit Quest 300 in dueling sled dog races Author: Anchorage Daily News
Print article On a day offering two mid-distance sled dog races in Alaska, Richie Diehl of Aniak held a narrow lead late in the Kuskokwim 300 and Jodi Bailey of Chatanika owned a narrow lead early in the Summit Quest 300. Diehl is among 13 mushers racing for a fat purse of $160,000 in the Kusko, one of the most prestigious mid-distance races in the sport. The race started Friday evening in Bethel and is expected to end there Sunday morning. Five teams, including six-time champion Pete Kaiser of Bethel and nine-time champion Jeff King of Denali Park, had made their third of four stops at a checkpoint near Tuluksak by 7 p.m. Saturday. They’ll visit the checkpoint one more time before making the final run to the finish line.