The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF)

• is the nation's northernmost Land, Sea, and Space Grant university.
• was founded in 1917 and has about 10,000 students from 50 states and 39 foreign countries.
• has 8 campuses across the state.
• is the home of the Nanooks (Eskimo word for polar bear), a name given to UAF sport teams.

The Geophysical Institute (GI)

• is the flagship research institute of UAF.
• has scientific research projects which reach from the center of the Sun to the center of the Earth and beyond.
• has about 60 faculty and 80 graduate/undergraduate students carrying out research at high latitudes relating to their location within the Arctic.
• operates the Poker Flat Research Range, the world's only university-owned scientific rocket launching facility.

The Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF)

• is housed within the Geophysical Institute at UAF.
• is one of the Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
• downlinks, processes, archives, and distributes SAR data from many SAR satellites.