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John Mickett Senior Oceanographer jmickett@apl.washington.edu Phone 206-897-1795 |
Education
B.S. Marine Science, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 1994
M.S. Physical Oceanography, University of Washington - Seattle, 2002
Ph.D. Physical Oceanography, University of Washington - Seattle, 2007
Projects
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Submesoscale Mixed-Layer Dynamics at a Mid-Latitude Oceanic Front SMILE: the Submesoscale MIxed-Layer Eddies experiment |
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1 Mar 2017
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This experiment is aimed at increasing our understanding of the role of lateral processes in mixed-layer dynamics through a series of ship surveys and Lagrangian array deployments. Instrument deployments and surveys target the upper ocean's adjustment to winter atmospheric forcing events in the North Pacific subtropical front, roughly 800 km north of Hawaii. |
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Tasmania Internal Tide Experiment The Tasmanian continental slope will be instrumented with a range of tools including moored profiler, chi-pods, CTDs, and gliders to understand the process, strength, and distribution of ocean mixing from breaking internal waves. |
27 Nov 2011
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Samoan Passage Abyssal Mixing The Samoan Passage, 5500 m beneath the sea surface, is one of the "choke points" in the abyssal circulation. A veritable river of Antarctic Bottom water flows through it on its way into the North Pacific. As it enters the constriction, substantial turbulence, hydraulic processes and internal waves must occur, which modify the water. The overall goal is to understand these deep processes and the way they impact the flow, and to develop a strategy for eventually monitoring the flow through the Passage. |
27 Sep 2011
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Videos
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Environmental Sample Processor: A Sentry for Toxic Algal Blooms off the Washington Coast An undersea robot that measures harmful algal species has been deployed by APL, UW, and NOAA researchers off the Washington coast near La Push. Algal bloom toxicity data are relayed to shore in near-real time and displayed through the NANOOS visualization system. The Environmental Sample Processor, or ESP, is taking measurements near the Juan de Fuca eddy, which is a known incubation site for toxic blooms that often travel toward coastal beaches, threatening fisheries and human health. |
22 Jun 2016
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ORCA Tracks the 'Blob' A 'blob' of very warm surface water developed in the northeastern Pacific Ocean in 20142015 and its influence extended to the inland waters of Puget Sound throughout the summer of 2015. The unprecedented conditions were tracked by the ORCA (Oceanic Remote Chemical Analyzer) buoy network an array of six heavily instrumented moored buoys in the Sound. ORCA data provided constant monitoring of evolving conditions and allowed scientists to warn of possible fish kill events in the oxygen-starved waters of Hood Canal well in advance. |
3 Nov 2015
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ArcticMix 2015 APL-UW physical oceanographers John Mickett and Mike Gregg joined SIO colleagues during September 2015 in the Beaufort Sea aboard the R/V Sikuliaq to measure upper ocean mixing that billows heat from depth to the surface. These mixing dynamics may be an important factor in hastening sea ice melt during summer and delaying freeze-up in the fall. |
14 Oct 2015
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Publications |
2000-present and while at APL-UW |
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Microstructure mixing observations and fine scale parameterizations in the Beaufort Sea Fine, E.C., M.H. Alford, J.A. MacKinnon, and J.B. Mickett, "Microstructure mixing observations and fine scale parameterizations in the Beaufort Sea," J. Phys. Oceanogr., 51, 19-35, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-19-0233.1, 2020. |
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1 Jan 2021 ![]() |
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In the Beaufort Sea in September of 2015, concurrent mooring and microstructure observations were used to assess dissipation rates in the vicinity of 72° 35'N, 145°1'W. Microstructure measurements from a free-falling profiler survey showed very low [O (10-10 W kg-1)] turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rates (ε). A finescale parameterization based on both shear and strain measurements was applied to estimate the ratio of shear to strain (Rω) and ε at the mooring location, and a strain-based parameterization was applied to the microstructure survey (which occurred approximately 100 km away from the mooring site) for direct comparison with microstructure results. The finescale parameterization worked well, with discrepancies ranging from a factor of 1 to 2.5 depending on depth. The largest discrepancies occurred at depths with high shear. Mean Rω was 17, and Rω showed high variability with values ranging from 350 over 8 days. Observed ε was slightly elevated (factor of 23 compared with a later survey of 11 profiles taken over 3 hours) from 25125 m following a wind event which occurred at the beginning of the mooring deployment, reaching a maximum of ε = 6x10-10 W kg-1 at 30 m depth. Velocity signals associated with near-inertial waves (NIWs) were observed at depths greater than 200 m, where the Atlantic Water mass represents a reservoir of oceanic heat. However, no evidence of elevated ε or heat fluxes was observed in association with NIWs at these depths in either the microstructure survey or the finescale parameterization estimates. |
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Field evaluation of a low-powered, profiling pCO2 system in coastal Washington Chu, S.N., A.J. Sutton, S.R. Alin, N. Lawrence-Slavas, D. Atamanchuk, J.B. Mycket, J.A. Newton, C. Meinig, S. Stalin, and A. Tengberg, "Field evaluation of a low-powered, profiling pCO2 system in coastal Washington," Limnol. Oceanogr., 18, 280-296, doi:10.1002/lom3.10354, 2020. |
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1 Jun 2020 ![]() |
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Summertime upwelling of deep, corrosive waters on the continental shelf of the northern California Current System can exacerbate ocean acidification conditions, providing unsuitable environments for development of calcifying organisms and finfish that are important to the local economy. To better understand the carbonate system in this dynamic region, two recently developed technologies were combined with other sensors to obtain high‐frequency carbon profile data from July 2017 to September 2017. The compact, low‐power sensor package was composed of an optical sensor for partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2 optode, Aanderaa model #4797) integrated onto a wave‐powered PRofiling crAWLER (PRAWLER). The PRAWLER profiled from 3 to 80 m, stopping at fixed depths for varying lengths of time to allow for pCO2 equilibration. pCO2 derived from a regional empirical algorithm was used to correct optode drift using data at 80 m. Near‐surface adjusted optode pCO2 agreed within 6 ± 42 µ atm to surface pCO2 from a nearby Moored Autonomous pCO2 instrument. Throughout the water column, optode pCO2 compared to algorithm pCO2 within -28 ± 66 µ atm. Overall, optode uncertainty was 3572 µ atm based on root‐mean‐square errors from all comparison data sets. Errors are attributed to optode calibration, adjustment, algorithm uncertainty, and environmental variability between optode and reference data. Improvements for optode performance within this profiling application include using more stable sensing foils, in situ calibration, and pumped flow over the sensing foil. Additionally, the study revealed undersaturated (corrosive) waters with respect to aragonite below 60 m throughout the deployment that reached up to 40 m by mid‐September. |
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Mixing rates and bottom drag in Bering Strait Couto, N., M.H. Alford, J. MacKinnon, and J.B. Mickett, "Mixing rates and bottom drag in Bering Strait," J. Phys. Oceanogr., 50, 809-825, doi:10.1175/JPO-D-19-0154.1, 2020. |
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1 Mar 2020 ![]() |
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Three shipboard survey lines were occupied in Bering Strait during autumn of 2015, where high-resolution measurements of temperature, salinity, velocity, and turbulent dissipation rates were collected. These first-reported turbulence measurements in Bering Strait show that dissipation rates here are high even during calm winds. High turbulence in the strait has important implications for the modification of water properties during transit from the Pacific Ocean to the Arctic Ocean. Measured diffusivities averaging 2 x 10-2 m2 s-1 are capable of causing watermass property changes of 0.1°C and 0.1 psu during the ~12-day transit through the narrowest part of the strait. We estimate friction velocity using both the dissipation and profile methods and find a bottom drag coefficient of 2.3 (±0.4) x 10-3. This result is smaller than values typically used to estimate bottom stress in the region and may improve predictions of transport variability through Bering Strait. |
In The News
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Ocean trash: What you need to know KCTS9/EarthFix , Ken Christensen Ocean currents carry man-made debris to remote corners of the planet—even to places mostly untouched by people. And that makes it difficult to clean up, as APL-UW's Senior Oceanographer John Mickett demonstrates during his recent sojourn to Vancouver Island, B.C. to recover a wayward research buoy. |
11 Dec 2017
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UW, NOAA deploy ocean robot to monitor harmful algal blooms off Washington coast UW News and Information, Hannah Hickey John Mickett, an oceanographer at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory, led the deployment of the new instrument with Stephanie Moore, a scientist at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, as part of a larger collaborative project. |
25 May 2016
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Buoy deployed in Bellingham Bay to chart health of Puget Sound KING 5 News, Alison Morrow Oceanographers deployed a buoy in Bellingham Bay on Thursday that will chart the health of Puget Sound. It joins a half-dozen other buoys, but this is the only one in the north Puget Sound. It is equipped with several pieces of advanced technology that will monitor everything from salinity, temperature and weather changes. |
11 Feb 2016
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Inventions
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Real-time Ocean Mooring for the Environmental Sample Processor Record of Invention Number: 48554 |
Disclosure
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20 Feb 2019
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