| Department Lead |
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Chris Chickadel
Senior Principal Oceanographer Affiliate Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering |
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| Research Areas |
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Research Tools |
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- Air-Sea Exchange—gas and heat, biogeochemical cycling, rainfall
- Coastal—rivers, tidal flats, nearshore
- Ocean/Atmosphere—climate change, ocean circulation, atmospheric rolls, hurricanes
- Sensors—microwave, infrared, laser, hydrophone, dissolved gas
- Waves—wave breaking, internal waves
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Our remote sensing tools span a wide range of scales from satellite remote sensing, to field experiments using surface and airborne platforms, and to laboratory experiments in wave tanks. Remote sensing instruments used include electro-optical sensors (microwave, infrared, and laser) and acoustic sensors (sonars and hydrophones).
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| Energy Harvested from a River in Alaska |
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Mapping Underwater Turbulence with Sound |
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Riding Waves to Generate Electricity |
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A recently published paper details the flow conditions around a full-scale hydrokinetic river turbine.
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| Projects |
All |
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Media Coverage |
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Publications |
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Around the Americas One Island One Ocean
Andy Jessup, Harry Stern, Amanda Labrado, Jim Thomson
5 May 2025
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Arctic PISCES
Jim Thomson, Jason Gobat, Craig Lee, Bonnie Light, Axel Schweiger
14 April 2025
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First Look at PACE Ocean Color Observations
Ali Chase
26 April 2024
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Seawater synergy
DEIXIS Magazine
Wudan Yan
1 November 2025
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3 reasons why the Pacific Ocean tsunami fizzled before reaching WA
The Seattle Times
Conrad Swanson
30 July 2025
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How to see bioluminescence in Seattle's waterways
Seattle Met
Taylor McKenzie Gerlach
12 June 2025
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Surfing transport of buoyant objects observed in the nearshore
Ranville, EJ, J. Thomson, M. Moulton, M. Derakhti
21 January 2026
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Fostering tropical cyclone research and applications with synthetic aperture radar
Mouche, A., and 28 others including R.C. Foster
1 January 2026
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Modulation of the ocean surface skin temperature and heat flux in the presence of strong SST fronts
Castro, S.L., G.A. Wick, and A.T. Jessup
1 December 2025
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