| 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 |
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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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Buoy observation of high frequency ocean wave energy: Accuracy, consistency, and concerns for predictive applications
Rogers, W.E., and J. Thomson
13 March 2026
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Comparisons of seafloor distributed fiber-optic sensing datasets and empirical calibrations for inferring ocean surface gravity waves
Glover, H.E., M.M. Smith, M.E. Wengrove, E.F. Williams, J. Thomson, M.Ifju, and B.P. Lipovsky
1 March 2026
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Ocean observing system design: Transatlantic acoustic propagation for acoustic thermometry
Dushaw, B.D., D. Menemenlis, and J.A. Colosi
1 March 2026
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