The University of British Columbia

I am a physical oceanographer visiting from the Prince William Sound Science Center (PWSSC) in Cordova, Alaska.  At the PWSSC I am involved in a number of projects, all of which involve oceanographic observations in and around Prince William Sound (PWS).

In July 2009, I took part in a multi-PI model validation exercise in Prince William Sound called Sound Predictions 2009 (as I explain here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzqWaoXYBt0).  We literally threw everything we could at the ocean - three ctds, 44 drifting buoys, one in-line thermosalinograph, three near-shore moorings, one glider, one ROV, bottle chemistry, zoop net tows, HF radar, and at least three numerical models.  My part of this project was to contribute hydrographic and drifiting buoy data.  From this data I wrote a paper called, "Disruption of a cyclonic eddy circulation by wind stress in Prince William Sound, Alaska," to be published in the upcoming special supplemental issue of Continental Shelf Research titled Coastal Ocean Observing Systems: Retrospective Reanalysis and Real-Time Forecasting.

I also recently pulled four subsurface moorings from Hinchinbrook Entrance and Montague Strait - the two largest waterways between PWS and the northern Gulf of Alaska.  I have worked up the five year dataset into a manuscript titled "Seasonal transport estimates trough the straits connecting Prince William Sound to the Gulf of Alaska."  I will also be working with Clint Winant at Scripps to tease out the effects of buoyancy, wind, and tides on the flow in Montague Strait.

Finally, with the help of Dave Musgrave at UAF, a database of CTD and XBT profiles taken in PWS was assembled.  We will use the database to produce a study on the oceanographic climatology of PWS.