Project Investigator(s) Sponsor(s)

A Modular Approach to Building an Arctic Observing System for the IPY and Beyond in the Switchyard Region of the Arctic Ocean
This project will provided for the design, development, and implemention of a component of an Arctic Ocean Observing System in the Switchyard region of the Arctic Ocean (north of Greenland and Nares Strait) that will serve the scientific studies developed for the IPY (International Polar Year), SEARCH (Study of Environmental ARctic Change), and related programs. Specifically, the project will continue and expand two aircraft-based sections between Alert and the North Pole for long-term observation of hydrographic properties and a set of tracers aimed at resolving relative age structure and freshwater components in the upper water column.
Mike Steele
Craig Lee
Jason Gobat
NSF

Acoustic Environment of Haro Strait: Preliminary Propagation Modeling and Data Analysis
This analysis of the acoustic environments of the southern resident killer whales in Haro Strait of Puget Sound combines field measurements and acoustic propagation modeling for the frequency range 1-10 kHz.
Chris Jones
Mike Wolfson
NOAA

Acoustic Remote Sensing of Hydrothermal Flow
High-frequency acoustic remote sensing offers an attractive method of detecting and probing scales of hydrothermal flow that are unattainable by point sampling methods. Two new methods are: 1) scintillation thermography to detect and characterize diffuse flow fields; and 2) plume particulate scattering to estimate flow velocity and particulate concentrations in the high temperature vent plumes.
Chris Jones
Darrell Jackson

Adriatic Circulation Experiment: Mesoscale Dynamics and Response to Strong Atmospheric Forcing
The Adriatic Sea provides a unique laboratory in which oceanographers can study the ocean's response to atmospheric forcing at small (10 km) lateral scales and investigate the processes that communicate atmospheric forcing events (seasonal winds and freshwater flows) to the ocean interior.
Craig Lee
ONR

Air-Sea Coupling in the California Current Region
This study seeks 1) a seasonal and interannual description of the CCS via derived satellite products, including fluxes, 2) the oceanic response to atmospheric forcing, focusing on the contribution of 25-km scale variability to the flux fields as revealed by satellite observations, and 3) the atmospheric response to the surface expression of the CCS.
Kathie Kelly
Kate Edwards
Ralph Foster
Ellen Lettvin
NASA

ALOHA Mooring
The ALOHA/MARS mooring sensor network combines adaptive sampling methods with a moored deep-ocean sensor network.
Bruce Howe
NSF

An Observational Array for High-resolution, Year-round Measurement of Volume, Freshwater and Ice Flux Variability in Davis Strait
A coordinated domestic and international effort quantifies the variability of fluxes connecting the Arctic and Atlantic oceans and seeks to understand the role played by the Arctic and sub-Arctic in steering decadal scale climate variability; we will make year-round measurements of volume, liquid freshwater, and ice fluxes across Davis Strait.
Craig Lee
NSF

Analysis of the Vema Fracture Zone Exploratory Measurements (VEX) Datasets
The purpose of this project is to analyze the observations collected during the field phase of the Vema Fracture Zone (VFZ) Exploratory (VEX) Measurement Program in 2001-2003. The goal is to complete quantification of the transport of deep and bottom waters through the VFZ and of abyssal mixing rates in the VFZ.
Sabine Mecking
NSF

Antisubmarine Warfare Exercise
The autonomous undersea vehicle Seaglider can serve as a persistent, long-range, distributed undersea sensor in antisubmarine warfare operation scenarios, providing environmental sampling automation, precision, and frequency valuable to the fleet.
Marc Stewart
ONR

APL-UW Involvement in the Coastal Margin Observation and Predicting Science and Technology Center (CMOP)
AUVs will be deployed by a newly formed APL-UW AUV group as part of CMOP's experimental observation network which consists of multiple fixed and mobile platforms equipped with oceanographic sensors.
Craig McNeil
NSF

APLIS - Applied Physics Laboratory Ice Station
An ice station was established on a floe in the Beaufort Sea by engineers from the Lab's Ocean Engineering Department to support U.S. Navy and civilian personnel during under-ice exercises with two submarines on site. APL-UW provided all the logistics, underwater acoustic tracking, and under-ice diving functions during the month-long habitation.
Russ Light
Bob Miyamoto
U.S. Navy
Arctic Submarine Laboratory

Arctic Surface Air Temperatures for the Past 100 Years
Accurate fields of Arctic surface air temperature (SAT) are needed for climate studies, but a robust gridded data set of SAT of sufficient length is not available over the entire Arctic. We plan to produce authoritative SAT data sets covering the Arctic Ocean from 1901 to present, which will be used to better understand Arctic climate change.
Ignatius Rigor
Axel Schweiger
Harry Stern
NSF
NOAA
NASA

Asian Sea International Acoustics Experiment (ASIAEX)
The goals of ASIAEX program in the East China Sea were to identify and elucidate properties of shallow-water boundaries governing propagation and reverberation, such as sediment inhomogeniety, sediment roughness, and sea surface roughness, and to establish a geoacoustic description of the East China Sea seabed.
Peter Dahl
ONR

Assessing the Effects of Submesoscale Ocean Parameterizations (AESOP)
The AESOP Departmental Research Initiative (DRI) seeks to create an intellectual framework for assessing the impact of submesoscale ocean parameterizations on synoptic predictions of the ocean state using numerical models. The focus of this effort is to develop metrics and methods to assess existing parameterizations and consequent improvements, rather than to develop new parameterizations.
Mike Gregg
ONR

Automated Verification of Mesoscale Forecasts using Image Processing Techniques
A technique to rapidly assess mesoscale numerical forecasts is being expanded to assess amplitude, displacement, distortion and rotation errors. We are also adapting rapid image motion processing algorithms from the motion picture industry to develop a highly efficient, automated verification system.
David Jones
Scott Sandgathe
ONR

Bering Strait: Pacific Gateway to the Arctic
The Bering Strait is the only Pacific gateway to the Arctic. Since 1990, under various funding, APL-UW has been measuring properties of the Pacific inflow using long-term in situ moorings, supported by annual cruises. Data, papers, cruise reports, plans, and results are available.
Rebecca Woodgate
Ron Lindsay
NSF

Blue Water Acoustics Research
The Blue Water Acoustics Research group is a multidisciplinary team of investigators committed to solving the fundamental physical problems of oceanic acoustic propagation across ocean basins. Our inquiry is focused to maximize application to tactical and environmental monitoring systems. Includes the North Pacific Acoustic Laboratory (NPAL) and the Long-range Ocean Acoustic Propagation Experiment (LOAPEX).
Jim Mercer
Bruce Howe
Rex Andrew
Frank Henyey
Mike Wolfson
ONR

Boater Information System
This web portal gives boaters new, real-time, animated weather and oceanographic products to plan their trips on Puget Sound waterways.
David Jones
Janet Olsonbaker
Washington Seagrant

Borehole X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (XRFS)
The XRFS was built by APL-UW under a NASA contract from the Langley Research Center; it is designed to be deployed down a pre-drilled hole for exploration and elemental analysis of subsurface planetary regolith.
Tim Elam
NASA

CEMOS - Cognitive Engineering of MetOc Systems
Meteorologists and oceanographers use their scientific expertise to help computer scientists and software engineers design and build systems for users including the US Navy to carry out missions of national significance. The intersection of Operational MetOc with the cognitive engineering of products which fit users' real needs makes the Cognitive Engineering of MetOc Systems or CEMOS group unique.
David Jones

Changing Sea Ice and the Bering Sea Ecosystem
Part of the BEST (Bering Sea Ecosystem Study) Project, this study will use high-resolution modeling of Bering Sea circulation to understand past change in the eastern Bering climate and ecosystem and to predict the timing and scope of future change.
Jinlun Zhang
Rebecca Woodgate
NSF

Chukchi Borderland
In the western Arctic Ocean, a complex region of topographic ridges, deeps and plateaus - the "Chukchi Borderland" - is a cross-roads for Pacific Waters entering the Arctic and Atlantic waters circum-navigating the Arctic. This project looks at mooring and hydrographic data from a 2002 Polar Star cruise to the region, inferring water pathways and transformations.
Rebecca Woodgate
Knut Aagaard
NSF

COHerent STructures in Rivers and Estuaries eXperiment
The experiment is a four-year collaborative project that couples state-of-the-art remote sensing and in situ measurements with advanced numerical modeling to characterize coherent structures in river and estuarine flows.
Andy Jessup
Chris Chickadel
ONR

Developing Techniques for Non-Contact Streamgaging
We are developing techniques for the long-term monitoring of surface velocity at the mouth of the Columbia River with microwave Doppler radars.
Bill Plant
USGS
NSF

DRI: Capturing Uncertainty
DRI Uncertainty seeks to characterize and represent the uncertainty of the environmental features that affect active acoustic detection of submarines.
Marc Stewart
ONR

Dual frequency IDentification SONar (DIDSON)
The DIDSON represents a new class in identification sonar; the acoustic lens sonar gives near video quality images for inspection and identification of objects underwater. It is a surrogate for optical systems in turbid water.
Gary Harkins

Dynamics and Thermodynamics of the North Pacific
Part of the heat transported poleward from the tropics by the ocean is stored near the energetic western boundary currents. These storage reservoirs provide a source of interannual-to-decadal climate fluctuations through their impact on the ocean-to-atmosphere heat fluxes.
Kathie Kelly
NASA
NSF

Environmental Visualization
Meteorologists, oceanographers, computer scientists, and psychologists study the human-to-computer interaction of Navy METOC forecasting, and are developing workflow tools for key decision makers and warfare commanders.
David Jones
J. Ballas, NRL
Bob Miyamoto
ONR

Fluxes, Air-Sea Interaction, and Remote Sensing (FAIRS) Experiment
The transfer of momentum, heat, and gas across the air-sea boundary is characterized and quantified by measuring the underlying physical mechanisms with remote sensing instruments.
Andy Jessup
Bill Asher
ONR

Forecasting the condition of arctic sea ice on daily to seasonal time scales
The extent of arctic sea ice during the summer has declined to near-record minima during the last several summers. Can we predict future minima? Our weekly to seasonal forecasts provided by the National/Naval Ice Center help residents and navigators in the Arctic make better decisions regarding sea ice.
Ignatius Rigor
NOAA

Glider Monitoring, Piloting, and Communications System
APL-UW is leading a consortium of glider developers in advanced research and development to improve underwater glider systems for environmental characterizations during naval operation. Improvements include a common command control and display/transfer interface for use across all existing glider designs—the GLMPC system.
Craig Lee
David Jones
ONR

Hawaii Ocean Mixing Experiment, Nearfield Profiling: Full-depth, Tide-beam Tracking
HOME is dedicated to the profound challenge of understanding one of the ocean's most important physical processes, turbulent mixing. Mixing does not occur uniformly over the entire ocean, but is concentrated in the vicinity of rough topography.
Tom Sanford
Craig Lee
Eric Kunze
ONR

Hawaii Ocean Mixing Experiment, Nearfield Profiling: Generation, Propagation, and Dissipation of the Internal Tide in the Kauai Channel
The Hawaii Ocean-Mixing Experiment was designed to investigate the loss of energy from the surface tide as it flows over the Hawaiian Ridge and how that energy produces internal waves and turbulent dissipation.
Mike Gregg
Jack Miller

Heat Transport and Storage in the North Atlantic
Interannual-to-decadal variations in the poleward transport of heat in the North Atlantic are a candidate mechanism for inducing climate variations. Heat from the tropical ocean is carried rapidly northward by western boundary currents to the mid-latitudes. Much of the upper ocean's heat is lost to the atmosphere here.
Kathie Kelly
NSF

High Latitude Dynamics
Year-round subsurface moorings are used to study the Arctic throughout the year. PIs Aagaard and Woodgate focus on mooring and other in situ data to address a variety of Arctic questions - including flow of Atlantic and Pacific waters, interactions between the shelves and the deep basins, and the properties of the Arctic Ocean Boundary Current.
Knut Aagaard
Rebecca Woodgate
NSF
ONR
NOAA
MMS

Hood Canal Dissolved Oxygen Program
The program seeks to determine the sources of low dissolved oxygen in Hood Canal and the effect on marine life. The program will work with local state, federal, and tribal government policy makers to evaluate potential corrective actions that will restore and maintain a level of dissolved oxygen that will reduce stress on marine life.
Jan Newton
NAVSEA

HSMETOC
HS:METOC projects seek to improve the forecaster's ability to accurately predict and efficiently convey weather information to decision makers. Researchers study workflow, quantitative mental models, complex visualization, and intelligent agents.
David Jones
ONR

Human and Machine Classification of Active Sonar Echoes
We are evaluating the ability of trained sonar operators to discriminate targets from clutter using appropriate datasets for mid-frequency active and impulsive source sonar systems.
Jim Pitton
ONR

Hurricane Lagrangian Floats
Lagrangian floats, designed to follow the water parcel that surrounds them, are deployed by aircraft ahead of hurricanes. As the hurricane passes they sample the evolving surface mixed layer and then surface to telemeter their data by satellite to scientists.
Eric D'Asaro
NSF
ONR

Impact of Scatterometer Winds in the North Pacific
This research seeks to evaluate the accuracy of scatterometer winds, mapped wind fields, and wind products derived from the maps, and to evaluate ocean simulations forced by the winds and by flux fields derived from the winds.
Kathie Kelly
NASA

Interactions of Dynamics and Thermodynamics Along the Boundaries of the NPAC Gyre
A numerical model and observations of sea surface height from the TOPEX/Poseidon radar altimeter and sea surface temperature is used to examine ocean dynamics and thermodynamics along the boundaries of the subtropical gyre in the North Pacific.
Kathie Kelly
NASA
NSF

International Arctic Buoy Programme
The participants of the IABP work together to maintain a network of drifting buoys in the Arctic Ocean to provide meteorological and oceanographic data for real-time operational requirements and research purposes including support to the World Climate Research Programme and the World Weather Watch Programme.
Ignatius Rigor
NASA
NSF
NOAA
ONR
U.S. Coast Guard

Ionian Sea Rainfall Experiment
The Ionian Sea Rainfall Experiment will attempt to link radar, rain gauge, and underwater ambient sound measurements of rain to show that such measurements will improve our ability to understand satellite measurements of rainfall over the oceans.
Jeff Nystuen
NSF

Japan/East Sea Data Archive
The Japan/East Sea exhibits many of the dynamical and biological features found in larger oceans, including deep water formation, subduction, boundary inputs, fronts, eddies, and biological zonation. This, combined with the basin's modest size and easy logistics, makes the Japan/East Sea an excellent laboratory for pursuing oceanographic studies with modern instruments and approaches. Building on the work of previous investigations, the Office of Naval Research sponsored an intensive observation and modeling program that explored the sea's physical, chemical, and biological systems. The program's data products, published papers, and reports are now accumulated and presented through one user interface.
Craig Lee
ONR

Life of Sea Ice: Art Institute of Seattle Video for APL-UW Educational Outreach
Students from the Art Institute of Seattle joined APL-UW polar scientists in Barrow, Alaska, to document experiments on the land-fast ice. AIS created a video, The Life of Sea Ice, for APL-UW educational outreach.
Christopher Krembs
Mike Steele
Janet Olsonbaker
APL-UW
Art Institute of Seattle

Measurement of Non-Linear Internal Waves and their Interaction with Surface Waves Using Coherent Real Aperture Radars
The most promising method to monitor the generation of internal waves in the region of the Luzon Strait between the two ridges routinely is remote sensing. The limitations of visible sensors make microwave sensors a very attractive means of routinely monitoring internal wave generation.
Bill Plant
ONR

Mixed Layer Boundary Conditions of Chlorofluorocarbons in the North Pacific
The purpose of this research is to perform a series of model experiments with the Hallberg Isopycnal Model (HIM) to investigate 1.) mixed layer boundary conditions of CFCs in the North Pacific Ocean and 2.) the implications of possible winter-time undersaturations on the interpretation of CFC-derived ages distributions and anthropogenic carbon estimates in the ocean interior.
Sabine Mecking
NOAA

Mobile Testing for Tidal Power
As part of the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center at Oregon State University and the Univeristy of Washington, researchers are developing mobile instrumentation and methods for cost-effective environmental and performance monitoring of tidal in-stream energy conversion devices.
Jim Thomson
U.S. Dept. of Energy

Modeling the Cycle and Source Apportionment of Volatile Organic Compounds in Lakes and Rivers
A set of models to predict how changes in sources and environmental conditions will affect surface water concentrations of volatile organic compounds are being developed to aid regulatory decision makers.
Bill Asher
USGS

Multi-beam Sonar for Acoustic Sensing and Mapping of Hydrothermal Flow
This effort is a step towards improving multi-channel digital sonar technology for implementing new processing methods and imaging applications in the ocean. The target application for this instrument is measuring acoustic scatter from weak volume fluctuation in the deep-ocean water volume
Chris Jones
NSF

Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI): Statistical and Cognitive Approaches to Visualizing Uncertainty
The initiative will develop methods to evaluate uncertainty of mesoscale meteorological model prediction; improve statistical methods for dealing with uncertainty; understand how forecasters incorporate uncertainty in their forecasts; and develop methods to integrate and visualize multisource information from model output, observations, and expert knowledge.
David Jones
ONR

NANOOS: Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems
This Pacific Northwest regional association is a partnership of information producers and users allied to manage coastal ocean observing systems for the benefit of stakeholders and the public. NANOOS is creating customized information and tools for Washington, Oregon, and Northern California.
Jan Newton
David Martin

Naval Underwater Warfare Technology
Marc Stewart
ONR

NEPTUNE (NorthEast Pacific Time-integrated Undersea Networked Experiments): Development of a Power System for Cabled Ocean Observatories
The NEPTUNE project is a linked array of undersea observatories on the Juan de Fuca plate in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. Fiber-optic power cable will connect land-based scientists, students, decision makers, and the public to distributed sensors above, on, and beneath the seafloor.
Bruce Howe

New Techniques for Coastal Benthic Denitrification Studies
We will evaluate the use of the Gas Tension Device (GTD) to detect denitrification signatures in conjunction with high precision mass-spectrometry dissolved gas measurements.
Craig McNeil
NSF

Non Viral Gene Medicine for Hemophilia
Non viral gene transfer offers a safer alternative to viral gene delivery in the treatment of hemophilia.
Carol Miao
Andrew Brayman

North Pacific Acoustic Laboratory
The objectives of the NPAL program are to understand the basic physics of low-frequency, long-range, broadband propagation, the effects of environmental variability on signal stability and coherence, and the fundamental limits to signal processing at long-range imposed by ocean processes.
Bob Spindel
Jim Mercer
Bruce Howe
Rex Andrew
Brian Dushaw
ONR

North Pole Environmental Observatory
The observatory is staffed by an international research team that establishes a camp at the North Pole each spring to take the pulse of the Arctic Ocean and learn how the world's northernmost sea helps regulate global climate.
Jamie Morison
Knut Aagaard
Andy Heiberg
Dick Moritz
Mike Steele
NSF

Optimum Vessel Performance in Evolving Nonlinear Wave Fields
Measuring phase-resolved waves around a ship is APL-UW's involvement in this four-part project by demonstrating wave height retrievals from both cross sections and Doppler shifts along a line.
Bill Plant
ONR

Parameterization of Gas Flux at High Wind Speed (GasFloat)
A technical component of our hurricane project is the continued improvement of dissolved gas sensors for use on the APL mixed layer float (see Eric D’Asaro’s website at APL-UW).
Craig McNeil
NSF

Parameterization of Gas Flux at High Wind Speed (Hurricane)
This goal of this project is to improve current parameterizations of air-sea gas transfer for high wind speeds.
Craig McNeil
NSF

Pelagic Imaging Mid-frequency Sonar (PIMS)
A novel mid-frequency multibeam sonar has been developed and deployed to image fish at long ranges in shallow water environments. It exploits the affects of waveguide propagation in the ocean and can be deployed in a fixed location in conjunction with other ocean observatory platforms and instruments.
Chris Jones
ONR

Physical and Optical Structures of the Upper Ocean of the Japan/East Sea
This study seeks to understand the processes that control physical and bio-optical variability in the Japan/East Sea including the upper ocean response to strong wintertime atmospheric forcing; watermass formation, subduction and spreading; dynamics of the subpolar front; and to characterize cross-front and cross-shelf bio-optical transitions.
Craig Lee
ONR

Polar Science Center Hydrographic Climatology
A gridded ocean climatology has been created that merges the 1998 version of the World Ocean Atlas with the regional Arctic Ocean Atlas. The result is a global climatology for temperature and salinity including a good description of the Arctic Ocean and its environs.
Mike Steele
Wendy Ermold
NSF
ONR
NASA

Producing an Updated Synthesis of the Arctic's Marine Primary Production Regime and its Controls
The focus of this project is to synthesize existing studies and data relating to Arctic Ocean primary production and its changing physical controls such as light, nutrients, and stratification, and to use this synthesis to better understand how primary production varies in time and space and as a function of climate change.
Mike Steele
Bonnie Light
NSF

Radar Measurements of Shoaling Waves and Longshore Currents at the Corps of Engineers Field Research Facility
We have operated our coherent, X-band radar, RiverRad, at the Corps of Engineers Field Research Facility in Duck, NC in order to compare our measured return with that obtained by Merrick Haller of Oregon State University using a non-coherent, X-band, marine radar and with video images obtained by Rob Holman of the same institution. OSU graduate student Patricio Catalan is coordinating this comparison.
Bill Plant
ONR

RADARSAT Geophysical Processor System at the Polar Science Center
Ron Lindsay
Harry Stern
Yanling Yu
Drew Rothrock
NASA

Regional Scale Nodes (RSN)
The University of Washington's Regional Scale Nodes or RSN of the NSF OOI will extend continuous high-bandwidth (tens of Gigabits/second) and power (tens of kilowatts) to a network of instruments widely distributed across, above, and below the seafloor in the northeast Pacific Ocean.
Gary Harkins
Clark Bodyfelt
Mike Harrington
Bruce Howe
NSF

Repeat Hydrography
Data from the U.S. CLIVAR/CO2 Repeat Hydrography cruises have been used for investigation of climate variability in the North Pacific Ocean based on oxygen measurements. In addition funding is being sought to collect SF6 and CFC measurements on an UW student cruise that will repeat part of the CLIVAR/CO2 and WOCE P16N cruise tracks along 152W.
Sabine Mecking
NOAA
NSF

Sea Ice Thickness Estimates Obtained from Satellites Using Submarines and Other In Situ Observations
We compare the observations of arctic sea ice thickness estimates from satellites with in situ observations – collected by submarine cruises and moorings under the sea ice, by direct measurement during field camps, by electromagnetic instruments flown over the sea ice, and by buoys drifting with the sea ice – to provide a careful assessment of our capabilities to monitor the thickness of sea ice.
Ignatius Rigor
Mark Wensnahan
NASA
NSF
NOAA
National Ice Center
ONR

Seaglider: Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
The autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Seaglider is the result of a collaborative effort between APL-UW and the UW School of Oceanography. These small, free-swimming vehicles can gather environmental data from the ocean for months at a time and transmit it to shore in near-real time via satellite data telemetry.
Russ Light
Craig Lee
Marc Stewart
ONR

Seasonal and Interannual Variability of the Alaska Coastal Current: Long-term, Three-dimensional Observations Using a Telemetering Autonomous Vehicle
The AUV Seaglider is used to study the seasonal and interannual variability in ACC freshwater content and transport, the ACC's role in governing springtime mixed layer evolution over the shelf, the processes controlling temporal and spatial variability in the spring bloom, and the processes that may produce onshore nutrient flux.
Craig Lee
NSF
NOAA
ONR

Sediment Acoustics Experiment 2004 (SAX04)
The overall objective of SAX04 is to better understand the acoustic detection at low grazing angles of objects, such as mines, buried in sandy marine sediments.
Eric Thorsos
Kevin Williams
DJ Tang
ONR

Shelf-Basin Interaction in the Chukchi Sea
The Chukchi Sea, at the Pacific entrance to the Arctic, is one of the most productive regions of the world ocean. The throughflow from the Pacific to the Arctic crosses and is modified on this shallow shelf. As part of the interdisciplinary Shelf-Basin Interaction project, using in situ moorings we examine the physical processes defining modification in the Chukchi and how the Chukchi outflows connect to the Arctic Ocean.
Rebecca Woodgate
Knut Aagaard
ONR
NSF

Shelf-Basin Interaction Mooring Cruise 2003
The Shelf-Basin-Interaction program of NSF investigates the processes of transfer and interaction between the ocean shelves, slopes, and deep basins. Here the focus region is the shelf/slope/basin region of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in the Arctic.
Rebecca Woodgate
Knut Aagaard
NSF

Skin and Bulk Sea Surface Temperature Validation Program
There is a growing consensus that sea surface temperature (SST) products derived from satellite-based infrared (IR) sensors should include ocean skin temperature. To validate satellite-based measurements of skin temperature, widespread, in situ data are required.
Andy Jessup
NASA
NOPP
NOAA

Sonar Simulation Toolset (SST)
The Sonar Simulation Toolset is a computer program that produces simulated sonar signals, enabling users to build an artificial ocean that sounds like a real ocean.
Bob Goddard
ONR

SORFED: Sound Recording for Education
Underwater hydrophones listen to natural and anthropogenic sounds and a web camera stationed several feet above the surface at the hydrophone's location allows users to look for interesting activities that have noise associated with them.
Kevin Williams
Russ Light
Tim Wen
APL-UW Internal Funds

Study of Environmental Arctic Change
SEARCH is an interagency effort to understand the nature, extent, and future development of the system-scale change presently seen in the Arctic. These changes are occuring across terrestrial, oceanic, atmospheric, and human systems.
Jamie Morison
Dick Moritz
NSF

Study of Mucopolysaccharides in Arctic Sea Ice
The liquid brine filled space in sea ice is where processes of crystal growth and microbial life interact in a sensitive thermodynamical equilibrium between solid matter, liquid, and solutes. Some organisms are capable of manipulating this equilibrium to their ecological advantage with detectable changes of the sea ice micro- and macro- physical properties.
Christopher Krembs
NSF

Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA)
Dick Moritz
NSF
ONR

Temporal and Spatial Nature of Regime Shifts Impacts Stellar Sea Lions
Don Percival
NOAA

The Arctic Ocean Model Intercomparison Project (AOMIP): Synthesis and Integration
The AOMIP science goals are to validate and improve Arctic Ocean models in a coordinated fashion and investigate variability of the Arctic Ocean and sea ice at seasonal to decadal time scales, and identify mechanisms responsible for the observed changes. The project's practical goals are to maintain and enhance the established AOMIP international collaboration to reduce uncertainties in model predictions (model validation and improvements via coordinated experiments and studies); support synthesis across the suite of Arctic models; organize scientific meetings and workshops; conduct collaboration with other MIPs with a special focus on model improvements and analysis; disseminate findings of AOMIP effort to broader communities; and train a new generation of ocean and sea-ice modelers.
Mike Steele
Jinlun Zhang
NSF

The Impact of Changes in Arctic Sea Ice on the Marine Planktonic Ecosystem- Synthesis and Modeling of Retrospective and Future Conditions
This work will investigate the historical and contemporary changes of arctic sea ice, water column, and aspects of the marine ecosystem as an integrated entity, and project future changes associated with a diminished arctic ice cover under several plausible warming scenarios.
Jinlun Zhang
Mike Steele
NSF

The Important Little Life of Dylan Diatom
A 3D animation, "The Important Little Life of Dylan Diatom," shows the plight of a diatom in the Arctic Ocean. This slice of Dylan's life, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and animated by student Anna Czoski, shows middle school students the role of phytoplankton in the Arctic.
Mike Steele
Janet Olsonbaker
Troy Tanner
NSF

Tidal Flats
Under an ONR-sponsored Department Research Initiative researchers are studying thermal signatures of inter-tidal sediments. The goal is to understand how sediment properties feedback on morphology and circulation, and the extent to which such properties can be sensed remotely.
Jim Thomson
Chris Chickadel
ONR

Transport and Divergence of Carbon, Oxygen and Nutrients in the Atlantic Ocean
This project seeks to provide data-based estimates of the transport and divergence of carbon, oxygen and nutrients in the Atlantic Ocean using a multi-box inverse model as well as a tracer age based approach. The goal is to evaluate the magnitude and location of oceanic uptake/outgassing of CO2 as well as the size of the biological carbon pump.
Sabine Mecking
NSF

University of Washington Probability Forecast
Web-based forecasts are provided in the familiar weather graphics found in newspapers. Probcast adds probability information in ways that are most useful to the general public. For example, most people do not need to know the confidence interval of a temperature forecast, but they may need to know the highest temperature possible for a particular day. Funding for this project was begun by a Department of Defense Multi-University Research Initiative title, "Integration and Visualization of Multi-Source Information for Mesoscale Meteorology: Statistical and Cognitive Approaches to Visualizing Uncertainty."
David Jones
John Pyle
Janet Olsonbaker
ONR
NSF

Wave Dissipation and the Distribution of Breaking Crests
The energy dissipation of breaking waves is quantified using simultaneous remote and in situ measurements.
Andy Jessup
Jim Thomson
NSF
ONR

Wavelet-based Statistical Analysis of Multiscale Geophysical Data
Wavelets re-express data collected over a time span or spatial region such that variations over temporal/spatial scales are summarized in wavelet coefficients. Individual coefficients depend upon both a scale and a temporal/spatial location, so wavelets are ideal for analyzing geo-systems with interacting scales.
Don Percival
NSF

XRay Flying Wing Glider
The XRay glider is a newly designed, high-performance undersea robotic vehicle developed in partnership with the Marine Physical Lab at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Jim Luby
Pete Brodsky
Russ Light
ONR


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