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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We are developing techniques for the long-term monitoring of surface velocity at the mouth of the Columbia River with microwave Doppler radars.

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.

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).

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.

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.