Jacob Davis, a 91探花doctoral student in civil and environmental engineering, (right) releases a wave-monitoring sensor from a U.S. Navy aircraft on Sept. 26 off the coast of Florida. Data from this instrument developed at the 91探花Applied Physics Laboratory will be combined with other observations to try and improve hurricane forecasts around the world.

Researchers dropped technology developed at the 91探花 off the coast of Florida on Monday to measure ocean waves in the path of Hurricane Ian. The test is one part of a broad effort to improve forecasts for these fast-moving and deadly systems.

The team, including , a 91探花doctoral student in civil and environmental engineering, and members of the U.S. Navy鈥檚 VXS-1 Squadron deployed the devices in the path of Hurricane Ian, before the hurricane made landfall. The five instruments developed at the 91探花are now sending back data that can be viewed on this .

The UW-built sensors are known as the , or SWIFTs. For this project, the team used a smaller version, known as microSWIFTs. The sensors can drift with the waves to gather detailed measurements of waves and currents at the ocean鈥檚 surface. Past deployments used the sensors to study waves in the changing Arctic Ocean and near potential sites for marine turbines.

The current effort in the path of Hurricane Ian aims to understand how the extreme low-pressure storm system affects the ocean and, ultimately, coastal areas.

鈥淭he goal is to understand the details of wave generation in hurricanes, which are unique in how fast they move and how strong the winds are. This causes rapid wave evolution that鈥檚 not well described by current forecast models,鈥� said Jim Thomson, an oceanographer at the 91探花Applied Physics Laboratory and a 91探花professor of civil and environmental engineering. 鈥淭he end goal is to improve the forecasts for when and where waves will impact the coasts, including storm surge.鈥�

Researchers emphasize that the deployment is part of a . The microSWIFT observations at the ocean鈥檚 surface will be combined with other observations, including technologies deployed on the same flight by Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Sofar Ocean Technologies.

This work was done with the National Oceanographic Partnership Program鈥檚 Hurricane Coastal Impacts program with supporting flights by the U.S. Navy鈥檚 Scientific Development Squadron. The research was funded by the National Oceanographic Partnership Program and managed by the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research.

For more information contact Davis at davisjr@uw.edu or Thomson at jthomson@apl.washington.edu. (Note: Thomson is on a ship in the Arctic and his responses will be delayed)

Photo and video available .

Throughout the month of November 2019, a team of 91探花 researchers chased storms in the Arctic Ocean. The project, , or CODA, is looking at how water currents shift and waves hit the coast with more open water, to provide better forecasts and predictions for the region鈥檚 future.

The two-year project is funded by the National Science Foundation and is led by , an oceanographer at the 91探花Applied Physics Laboratory and a faculty member of civil and environmental engineering, and , an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering.

The team used the University of Alaska Fairbanks鈥� icebreaker for three weeks to watch fall storms hit the shore at the time of year when coastal ice begins to form. The video above combines an interview with Thomson after the trip聽with video the team聽captured while at sea.

“We know from other projects and other work that the waves are definitely on the increase in the Arctic,” Thomson during the expedition. He published research that first detected house-sized waves during a September 2012 storm in the central Arctic Ocean. Bigger storms could affect communities already vulnerable to coastal erosion and pose dangers for small boats.

To learn more about the effort, see the on the project’s outreach website, or read the from the 91探花Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering.

[The video above was filmed after the researchers returned, and includes footage from the November 2019 research cruise.]

A 91探花 team is leaving to study how fall storms, dwindling sea ice and vulnerable coastlines might combine in a changing Arctic. The project leaves Thursday, Nov. 7, from Nome, Alaska in the Bering Strait to spend four weeks gathering data during the fall freeze-up season.

The team aboard the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ will begin sampling Nov. 8 at Icy Cape, a barrier island to the west of Utqiagvik, formerly known as Barrow. Then the team will continue farther into the Arctic to sample near Flaxman Island, off the northwest tip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the week of Nov. 11.聽 The team will also sample off Jones Islands, west of Prudhoe Bay. The ship is expected back in Dutch Harbor on Dec. 2.

This past September, the extent of sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean was one of the ever recorded. As of late October, the sea ice is at the for this time of year. One concern is what these changes will mean for coastal erosion and fall flooding in low-lying areas.

“After another near-record low in Arctic sea ice this summer, we are loading up for an expedition to learn how the ice returns in the autumn 鈥� and whether or not it returns in time to protect the Arctic coastlines from the fall storms,” said principal investigator , an oceanographer at the 91探花Applied Physics Laboratory and a faculty member of civil and environmental engineering.

The project, , or CODA, will look at how water currents shift and waves hit the coast with more open water, to provide better forecasts and predictions for the region’s future.

Outreach plans include regular field updates on the website, , and the . The team will also host livestream events from onboard the Sikuliaq: one targeted at classrooms, on Nov. 13 at 11 a.m. Pacific Time, and one open to the general public, on Nov. 20 at 11 a.m. Pacific Time. Both livestream events are free; sign up .

“These observations will provide an opportunity to closely study the role of coastal sea ice in dissipating wind-generated waves in the Arctic Ocean,” said co-principal investigator , an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. “The ongoing reduction in seasonal ice cover in the Arctic Ocean may cause enhanced wave activity along the northern Alaskan coast, contributing to rapid coastal erosion and local flooding issues.”

Partners include the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and the U.S. National Ice Center. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation.

For more information, contact Thomson at jthomson@apl.washington.edu or 206-616-0858.

This week, a surfboard arrived in Antarctica. Not only was it missing a surfer, but the unique board was covered in parts that let it move independently and measure the surrounding seawater.

The 91探花 will first use the Wave Glider to investigate the summer conditions near Palmer Station on the Antarctic Peninsula, to better understand how the warming ocean interacts with ice shelves that protrude from the shore.

Then in February, the cybernetic surfboard plans to head north into Drake Passage, braving some of the stormiest seas on the planet that even large research ships try to avoid. The device uses wave power to propel itself, so the monster waves common in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current can help it move forward.

“We hope to learn more about the connections between the ocean, atmosphere and sea ice in this dynamic environment,” said principal investigator , an oceanographer at the 91探花Applied Physics Laboratory and professor of civil and environmental engineering.

As it surfs along, the board will measure turbulence in the upper part of the Southern Ocean, which helps to measure how heat and other properties move between the water and the air. The board sends information back via satellite, and researchers will retrieve it once the mission is complete.

The 91探花team’s previous project in late 2016 sent the same autonomous platform across the 500-mile channel between Antarctica and Argentina, with resulting papers in and the . This time the board has more capabilities, including a winch that can lower an instrument to measure water temperature, salinity and pressure 鈥� key oceanographic observations 鈥� down to a depth of 150 meters (about 160 yards).

The revamped system also uses sonar to measure turbulence in the ocean and in the atmosphere, as well as a motion sensor to measure the waves. These measurements quantify the strength of the mixing occurring in the notoriously stormy region.

The board is a modified version of a Wave Glider made by Liquid Robotics, a California-based subsidiary of Boeing Co.

“The ability to collect vertical profile data with the new winch is a game changer. It makes the platform complete as an autonomous research tool,” said , an oceanographer at the Applied Physics Laboratory and affiliate assistant professor of oceanography.

Girton and , an oceanographer at the Applied Physics Laboratory, are putting the instrument out in the water this week from the icebreaker research vessel Laurence M. Gould. An outreach team is providing from the ship through Nov. 2.

The coastal monitoring is part of the at Palmer Station, a U.S. research station on an island off the Antarctic Peninsula. The research is funded by the National Science Foundation.

For more information, contact Thomson at jthomson@apl.washington.edu and Girton at girton@uw.edu.

The hub of the North Slope region lies on the shore of the Arctic Ocean. The low-lying coastal region is seeing its coastlines retreat by several feet per year.

A 91探花 team will be in the area from April 28 to May 5 visiting four communities as the team prepares for a two-year study of how waves, ice and coastal erosion are affecting the coast.

“The coast was being protected by ice. Now that there’s less ice, there’s less protection. The waves start to erode away at the coast a lot more,” said , an oceanographer in the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory and an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. “There’s a feedback loop when you break up the ice, then you have less protection, and then the waves can impinge on the coast. And warmer water temperatures compound this effect by melting the permafrost along the coast.”

His previous research looked at how can form in the increasingly ice-free waters of the Arctic Ocean.

Now Thomson and team member Lucia Hosekova, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Reading, will spend a week visiting the communities, giving presentations to school groups and presenting at Town Hall-style evening events.

Team members hope for a two-way conversations at the evening events in Utqiagvik, Kaktovik, Wainwright and Point Lay. Together, the region’s eight communities are home to some 9,000 permanent residents.

“These communities have lived there for generations,” Thomson said. “They know how their ecosystems work, so we want to hear from their elders and learn from people who hunt and fish there year-round.”

The researchers will be back for another short visit the first week of August. In November, the team will take the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ icebreaker for three weeks to watch fall storms hit the shore at the time of year when coastal ice begins to form.

“There’s no guarantee, but over three weeks hopefully we’ll get some storms where the ice has formed and some where there is no ice,” Thomson said.

This spring, the state of Alaska had the on record. Utqiagvik’s average temperature of 5.9 F was 18.6 degrees above the 30-year average, and 6.6 degrees above the previous record, set in March 2018.

“There’s no question, the environment is changing rapidly,” Thomson said.

Utqiagvik also experienced a in fall 2017. Waves from a fall storm breached the beach berm, flooding the low-lying town. Damage was estimated at $10 million.

The new National Science Foundation-funded project, , or CODA, will look at how water currents change and waves hit the coast with more open water, to provide better forecasts and predictions for the region’s future.

Co-principal investigator , a 91探花assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, will lead the forecasting efforts.

“Our key question is once there’s less ice, then there’s more waves, and that changes the ocean conditions,” Thomson said. “We’ve previously been focused on looking at that offshore, for the larger-scale picture of the ocean. Now we’re trying to look close to the coast to learn how it works there.”

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For more information, contact Thomson at jthomson@apl.washington.edu or 206-616-0858.

Instead their job is increasingly being given to ocean drones, the autonomous floating vehicles that collect data from the world’s oceans. With an urgent need to better understand climate to predict how it will shift with more heat-trapping gases, scientists are developing new tools to measure waters below where satellites can penetrate, and in places that are too dangerous or expensive to reach regularly by research ship. They are also sending those instruments on increasingly ambitious missions.

Many of these new tools look like robotic fish, but the 91探花 sent a robotic surf board to ride the waves collecting data from Antarctica to South America. The Wave Glider, a long-duration ocean robot designed to operate in stormy conditions and high latitudes, can stay at sea for months patrolling for illegal fishing, listening for seismic events, collecting weather or ocean data and monitoring the environment. Last December, 91探花researchers sent it out on a first-ever attempt to cross the terrifically turbulent waters of Drake Passage.

The currents circling Antarctica that pose a challenge to mariners also mix significant heat energy from all the world’s oceans. Most of that mixing happens in the top few hundred feet, where winds and waves basically put the surface layer on a spin cycle.

“The Southern Ocean, and the Drake Passage in particular, are key locations that are historically under-sampled,” said first author , an oceanographer at the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory. “Using an autonomous platform allowed us to have persistence in the region, as well as track or target the fronts and gradients that make the place so interesting.”

The recent in Oceanography Magazine recounts the pilot use of the Wave Glider to cross Drake Passage, a roughly 500-mile channel off the tip of South America.

The 91探花oceanographers used a commercial made by Liquid Robotics, a California-based subsidiary of the Boeing Co., to surf along the water’s surface gathering observations. The researchers added extra sensors for temperature, salinity, air pressure, humidity and wind to the commercial model.

After a test run in summer 2016 off Washington’s coast, the instrument was deployed off the Antarctic Peninsula in December. It spent about three months zigzagging its way across the fabled Drake Passage, while the researchers occasionally piloted the instrument remotely from shore.

As the study’s authors wrote, this is where the strong Antarctic current becomes “a mess of swirling eddies” and meanders around its central path. “The zig-zag pattern in the middle of Drake Passage was designed to survey the strong fronts and meanders of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current common to that region,” wrote Thomson and co-author , also with the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory.

A Wave Glider harnesses energy from the waves, using the shape of the water motion below the surface to drive the vehicle forward with minimal power. With wave energy for motion and solar panels charging batteries to power its sensors, the board can operate for months without maintenance. Even so, the late-summer sun so far south did not provide enough energy to recharge batteries late into the expedition, and a research ship retrieved the instrument and its data near Argentina in late March. Though the board didn’t reach South America, the real goal was the data it collected.

“The mission just completed would have cost many millions of dollars to complete with a ship,” Thomson said. “An autonomous approach allowed us to collect data that has never 鈥� and would never have 鈥� been collected in this remote region.”

The authors are still processing the observations collected during the voyage, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, to understand mixing on different spatial scales. They hope that future funding will allow another chance to collect more data and transition this program into regular annual monitoring of the Drake Passage.

“It鈥檚 not just about having done this successfully once, it鈥檚 about learning how to make this routine.聽 We do that, and we change the game on data collection in this important region.” Thomson said.

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For more information, contact Thomson at jthomson@apl.washington.edu or 206-616-0858 and Girton at girton@apl.washington.edu 辞谤听206-353-4980.

A 91探花 researcher made the first study of waves in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, and detected house-sized waves during a September 2012 storm. The results were recently published in .

“As the Arctic is melting, it’s a pretty simple prediction that the additional open water should make waves,” said lead author , an oceanographer with the 91探花.

His data show that winds in mid-September 2012 created waves of 5 meters (16 feet) high during the peak of the storm. The research also traces the sources of those big waves: high winds, which have always howled through the Arctic, combined with the new reality of open water in summer.

Arctic ice used to retreat less than 100 miles from the shore. In 2012, it retreated more than 1,000 miles. Wind blowing across an expanse of water for a long time creates whitecaps, then small waves, which then slowly consolidate into big swells that carry huge amounts of energy in a single punch.

The size of the waves increases with the fetch, or travel distance over open water. So more open water means bigger waves. As waves grow bigger they also catch more wind, driving them faster and with more energy.

Shipping and oil companies have been eyeing the opportunity of an ice-free season in the Arctic Ocean. The emergence of big waves in the Arctic could be bad news for operating in newly ice-free Northern waters.

“Almost all of the casualties and losses at sea are because of stormy conditions, and breaking waves are often the culprit,” Thomson said.

It also could be a new feedback loop leading to more open water as bigger waves break up the remaining summer ice floes.

“The melting has been going on for decades. What we’re talking about with the waves is potentially a new process, a mechanical process, in which the waves can push and pull and crash to break up the ice,” Thomson said.

Waves breaking on the shore could also affect the coastlines, where melting permafrost is already making shores more vulnerable to erosion.

The observations were made as part of a bigger project by a sensor anchored to the seafloor and sitting 50 meters (more than 150 feet) below the surface in the middle of the Beaufort Sea, about 350 miles off Alaska’s north slope and at the middle of the ice-free summer water. It measured wave height from mid-August until late October 2012.

Satellites can give a rough estimate of wave heights, but they don’t give precise numbers for storm events. They also don’t do well for the sloppy, partially ice-covered waters that are common in the Arctic in summer.

Warming temperatures and bigger waves could act together on summer ice floes, Thomson said: “At this point, we don’t really know relative importance of these processes in future scenarios.”

Establishing that relationship could help to predict what will happen to the sea ice in the future and help forecast how long the ice-free channel will remain open each year.

The recent paper recorded waves at just one place. This summer Thomson is part of an international group led by the 91探花that is to better understand the physics of the sea-ice retreat.

“There are several competing theories for what happens when the waves approach and get in to the ice,” Thomson said. “A big part of what we’re doing with this program is evaluating those models.”

He will be out on Alaska’s northern coast from late July until mid-August deploying sensors to track waves. He hopes to learn how wave heights are affected by the weather, ice conditions and amount of open water.

“It’s going to be a quantum leap in terms of the number of observations, the level of detail and the level of precision” for measuring Arctic Ocean waves, Thomson said.

The other author is W. Erick Rogers at the Naval Research Laboratory. The research was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research.

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For more information, contact Thomson at 206-616-0858 or jthomson@apl.washington.edu. He will be deploying sensors out of Prudhoe Bay from July 24 to Aug. 4 and have email access about once a day.

Researchers have installed a on the hull of the 64-car ferry that crosses Admiralty Inlet. The sensor measures the direction and speed of the water from surface to seafloor across the entire channel.

Understanding how water flows through Puget Sound’s myriad channels will help to better understand the local marine environment.

“Admiralty Inlet is the gateway between the ocean and Puget Sound,”said , an oceanographer with the 91探花. “We are measuring the flow through that gateway.”

Thomson is especially interested in tracking intermittent tongues that bring low-oxygen water up from the deep ocean. Lack of oxygen has led to in Hood Canal, and people want to know whether regulating sewage systems or runoff could prevent the problem.

“Under certain conditions deep water from the ocean will come up and sneak into Puget Sound and possibly contribute to low oxygen levels. Right now there is limited data, so it’s hard to say when or how much this happens,” Thomson said. “We really are an urban water system, but there’s also this very natural process connected to the ocean that changes our water quality.”

Thomson has worked for the Department of Ecology and others to study Admiralty Inlet for . His team maintained a seafloor sensor for over four years to measure currents and oxygen levels in the fast-flowing waters. But that one sensor could only see a small sliver, not the whole picture.

“Monitoring of Puget Sound is important because it helps us understand long-term trends and changes over time,” said , a marine scientist at the state . “Monitoring helps us understand if changes are natural or human-caused. If changes are human-caused, perhaps there are steps we can take to reverse problems.”

The sensor on the ferry is an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler. It sends tiny sound waves, or pings, down through the water. The technology is very similar to the depth-sounders and fish-finders used on many recreational vessels.

Particles in the water reflect the sound back. The time it takes for the echoes to return to the profiler is used to calculate the distance beneath the ship, and the shift in the wavelength of the returning ping is used to calculate the water’s direction and speed.

The ferry data will be equivalent to placing 32 sensors across the 3 陆-mile (6 km) stretch of water, Thomson said, and will be able to track flow at every 3 feet of depth through the channel.

Tracking flow across the entire stretch can help better understand and predict the ocean’s influence on Puget Sound oxygen, acidity and nutrient levels, and the movement of pollution or natural substances with ocean currents.

“This is an example of a creative and cost-effective collaboration helping us better understand the complex marine ecosystem of Puget Sound,” said Ken Dzinbal of the , which is a partner on the project.

91探花researchers modified the instrument to automatically begin recording data once the ferry starts to move and begin to upload the data wirelessly to computer servers on land as the vessel approaches shore. They worked with ferry engineers this spring to install the sensor and check the accuracy of the data.

They’ll install a second system later this year on the , which travels the same route.

Observations are available to the public now from the Department of Ecology and on the 91探花Applied Physics Lab , and in a few weeks will be available in more graphical form. In about a year there should be enough data for a student to start looking for trends, said Thomson, who is also a 91探花associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.

This project is just the latest in a local tradition of using ferries for science. The is a partnership between the 91探花Department of Atmospheric Sciences and Washington State Ferries that provides up-to-date marine forecasts. And since 2009 the Department of Ecology has put on the private Victoria Clipper IV passenger ferry that travels between Seattle and Victoria.

Funding for the project is from the U.S. .

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For more information, contact Thomson at 206-616-0858 or jthomson@apl.washington.edu. He will be in Port Townsend conducting research in Admiralty Inlet from June 16 to 20 but will be available via email or phone.

Adapted from an by the Washington Department of Ecology.