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Jim Thomson

Senior Principal Oceanographer

Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Email

jthomson@apl.washington.edu

Phone

206-616-0858

Research Interests

Environmental Fluid Mechanics, Ocean Surface Waves, Marine Renewable Energy (tidal and wave), Coastal and Nearshore Processes, Ocean Instrumentation

Biosketch

Dr. Thomson studies waves, currents, and turbulence by combining field observations and remote sensing techniques

Education

B.A. Physics, Middlebury College, 2000

Ph.D. Physical Oceanography, MIT/WHOI, 2006

Projects

Arctic PISCES

Pacific Infrastructure for Sustaining Continuous Engineering and Science in the Arctic. Advancing observing and prediction science in Arctic coastal and inner-shelf regions. Learn more and join the collaboration.

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14 Apr 2025

Arctic PISCES supports sub-seasonal to seasonal forecasts of the ice–ocean–atmosphere system by (1) monitoring conditions in the Arctic coastal zone and improving forecast models, and (2) tracking ocean heat content and its impact on the state of the landfast ice. Collaborating partners include APL-UW, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Persistent Measurements of Surface Waves in Landfast Ice Using Fiber Optic Telecommunication Cables

The high-resolution data collected during this research will help address fundamental questions about wave attenuation in landfast ice and breakup. The research is motivated by two questions: (1) What is the spatial and temporal variability of wave attenuation in landfast sea ice? (2) What drives landfast breakup? (Collaborative research with M. Smith, WHOI)

30 Aug 2023

Hurricane Coastal Impacts

APL-UW scientists are collaborating with 10 research teams to tackle the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) project goals: to enable better understanding and predictive ability of hurricane impacts, to serve and protect coastal communities. The APL-UW team will contribute air-deployed buoys to provide real time observations of hurricane waves and wave forcing that can be ingested by modeling groups, improving forecasts and validating hindcasts.

14 Dec 2021

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Videos

Around the Americas — One Island One Ocean

The Laboratory celebrates the launch of the One Island One Ocean 14-month, 27,000-mile expedition to circumnavigate North and South America. We are partnering in scientific observations of the coastal zone from the equator to high latitudes and are supporting community outreach and education events in dozens of ports.

5 May 2025

microSWIFTs: Tiny Oceanographic Floats Measure Extreme Coastal Conditions

These small, inexpensive ocean drifters are the latest generation of the Surface Wave Instrument Float with Tracking (SWIFT) platform developed at APL-UW. They are being used in several collaborative research experiments to increase the density of nearshore wave observations.

19 Apr 2022

Using a Wave Energy Converter for UUV Recharge

This project demonstrates the interface required to operate, dock, and wirelessly charge an uncrewed underwater vehicle with a wave energy converter.

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11 Apr 2022

Uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) predominantly use onboard batteries for energy, limiting mission duration based on the amount of stored energy that can be carried by the vehicle. Vehicle recharge requires recovery using costly, human-supported vessel operations. The ocean is full of untapped energy in the form of waves that, when converted to electrical energy by a wave energy converter (WEC), can be used locally to recharge UUVs without human intervention. In this project we designed and developed a coupled WEC-UUV system, with emphasis on the systems developed to interface the UUV to the WEC.

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Publications

2000-present and while at APL-UW

Turbulence measurements at three potential tidal energy sites in the Salish Sea

McVey, J.R., L. Kilcher, J. Thomson, and Z. Yang, "Turbulence measurements at three potential tidal energy sites in the Salish Sea," Appl. Ocean Res., 158, doi:10.1016/j.apor.2025.104561, 2025.

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1 May 2025

Understanding turbulence is critical for the robust design of current energy converters. Subsurface moorings were deployed in the Salish Sea, WA to characterize the turbulence statistics at three potential tidal energy sites: Bellingham Channel, Rosario Strait, and Tacoma Narrows. Measurements were made over two days during spring tides with a combination of acoustic Doppler velocimeters and current profilers in order to analyze the turbulence intensity, integral length scales and turbulent kinetic energy balance. For the four full tidal cycles collected at each site, water velocity peaks at 2.0, 2.8, and 2.5 m/s with average turbulence intensities of 12%, 9%, and 10% for Bellingham Channel, Rosario Strait, and Tacoma Narrows, respectively. The majority of turbulent energy is contained in horizontal anisotropic structures, consistent with the integral length scales observed, and turbulent energy production and dissipation are roughly balanced at the observed sites. Additionally, these channels have significant transverse shear stresses and should not be approximated as wall-bounded flows. This study shows the successful use of buoy-mounted ADVs to gain mid-water column turbulence measurements pertinent to the tidal energy industry, and results from this deployment are important for future work improving a numerical resource characterization model for the Salish Sea.

More room at the top: how small buoys help reveal the detailed dynamics of the air-sea interface

Cavaleri, L., and 14 others including J. Davis, E.J. Rainville, and J. Thomson, "More room at the top: how small buoys help reveal the detailed dynamics of the air-sea interface," Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., EOR, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-24-0120.1, 2025.

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28 Mar 2025

The sea surface and air-sea exchange processes have been identified as essential for both short- and long-term atmospheric and ocean forecasts. The two phases of the fluid layer covering our planet interact across a vast range of scales that we need to explore to achieve a better understanding of the exchange processes. While satellites provide a distributed large-scale view of the sea surface situation, highly detailed measurements, e.g., from oceanographic towers, are necessarily local. An intermediate solution can be provided by swarms of miniature surface buoys that measure waves and other key parameters. As size, weight, and cost are reduced, these can be deployed in large numbers to investigate specific processes that are at present only crudely parameterized in our models, also because of scarcity of good measurements. Perhaps the most crucial process is white-capping in stormy conditions, where air-sea exchanges are enhanced by one or two orders of magnitude. Other applications include wave-current interactions, wave-ice interactions, and plunging breakers in the coastal zone.

Stimulated by a dedicated workshop, we summarize here the main findings and possibilities derived from the different approaches, and in particular the state of the art for a selection of miniature buoys. We list the presented solutions, as well as other, similar and larger, buoys, with their main characteristics and range of application. We describe the various possibilities of practical use and the scientific and engineering problems to be solved. Looking to the future, we also point out where the present technological improvements are leading to.

Uncrewed surface vehicles in the Global Ocean Observing System: A new frontier for observing and monitoring at the air-sea interface

Patterson, R.G., and 51 others including J. Thomson, "Uncrewed surface vehicles in the Global Ocean Observing System: A new frontier for observing and monitoring at the air-sea interface," Front. Mar. Sci., 12, doi:10.3389/fmars.2025.1523585, 2025.

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6 Mar 2025

Observing air-sea interactions on a global scale is essential for improving Earth system forecasts. Yet these exchanges are challenging to quantify for a range of reasons, including extreme conditions, vast and remote under-sampled locations, requirements for a multitude of co-located variables, and the high variability of fluxes in space and time. Uncrewed Surface Vehicles (USVs) present a novel solution for measuring these crucial air-sea interactions at a global scale. Powered by renewable energy (e.g., wind and waves for propulsion, solar power for electronics), USVs have provided navigable and persistent observing capabilities over the past decade and a half. In our review of 200 USV datasets and 96 studies, we found USVs have observed a total of 33 variables spanning physical, biogeochemical, biological and ecological processes at the air-sea transition zone. We present a map showing the global proliferation of USV adoption for scientific ocean observing. This review, carried out under the auspices of the 'Observing Air-Sea Interactions Strategy' (OASIS), makes the case for a permanent USV network to complement the mature and emerging networks within the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). The Observations Coordination Group (OCG) overseeing GOOS has identified ten attributes of an in-situ global network. Here, we discuss and evaluate the maturation of the USV network towards meeting these attributes. Our article forms the basis of a roadmap to formalise and guide the global USV community towards a novel and integrated ocean observing frontier.

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In The News

Why physicists are air-dropping buoys into the paths of hurricanes

New Scientist, James Dinneen

A sprawling research program aims to improve hurricane forecasts by collecting data at the chaotic interface of ocean and atmosphere.

20 Sep 2024

NOAA researchers study sea ice retreat, link to harmful algal blooms

The Nome Nuggest, Colin A. Warren

Last week a team of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers arrived in Nome to launch the third year of an investigation that seeks to study sea ice retreat and chart phytoplankton in the northern Bering Sea.

14 Jun 2024

Hyperspectral cameras and high-tech buoys: Inside NOAA's Arctic AIR mission

KNOM Radio, Nome, AK, Ben Townsend

A project called 'Arctic AIR' is back in the Bering and Chukchi seas this summer to conduct studies of sea ice retreat and phytoplankton. The researchers seek to better understand rapid changes occurring in the Arctic's marine ecosystem due to climate change.

7 Jun 2024

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Acoustics Air-Sea Interaction & Remote Sensing Center for Environmental & Information Systems Center for Industrial & Medical Ultrasound Electronic & Photonic Systems Ocean Engineering Ocean Physics Polar Science Center
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