Dick Moritz

Dick MoritzDr. Moritz conducts basic and applied research on the physics of sea-ice and the climate of high-latitude regions. He has PhD, MSc and MPh degrees from Yale University (Dept. of Geology and Geophysics) and MA and BA degrees from the University of Colorado (Dept. of Geography). He has teaching and research experience in climatology, meteorology, oceanography, geophysical fluid dynamics and mathematics. Dr. Moritz served as Department Chair of PSC during 1999-2009, and was a leader in the planning, development and implementation of the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) project during 1992-2001. SHEBA was a coordinated, multi-institutional investigation of climate feedback processes that operate in the Arctic. Dr. Moritz’s research interests include the large-scale physics of sea-ice, climate diagnostics and modeling, sea-ice prediction, the oceanography of the Arctic and the Antarctic and remote sensing. He has conducted measurement programs in the Arctic Ocean, the Denmark Strait, the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas and the Ross Sea. His current research projects include analysis of sea-ice thickness and mass balance from measurements by Upward Looking Sonar (ULS) at the North Pole Environmental Observatory, the Davis Strait and the Bering Strait, and design of measurement arrays to support ice/ocean prediction in the Arctic. Dr. Moritz led the Polar Science Center’s participation in the annual “Polar Science Weekend at Pacific Science Center” during its first three years (2006-2008), and developed and taught outreach mini-courses entitled “Global Warming” and “Changes in the Arctic Marine Environment” for the University of Washington Osher Institute during 2008-2009. Dr. Moritz joined the UW and Polar Science Center in 1980.

Selected Publications

  • Moritz, R.E. and A.N. Ivakin, Retrieving sea-ice thickness from ULS echoes: methods and data analysis. Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Underwater Acoustics, Institute of Acoustics, St. Albans, U.K., 8pp, 2012.

  • Zhang, J., R Woodgate, and R.Moritz, 2010, Sea Ice response to Atmospheric and Oceanic Forcing in the Bering Sea, J.Phys.Oceanogr., 40(8), 1729-1747.

  • Stern, H.L., R.E. Moritz, E. Lettvin, D. Schatz, and L. Russell (2008), Polar Science Weekend: A University / Science Center Collaboration, Eos Trans. AGU, 89(53), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract ED33A-0620.

  • Serreze, M. C., A. P. Barrett, A. J. Slater,  R. A. Woodgate,  K. Aagaard,  R. Lammers, M. Steele,  R. Moritz, M. Meredith,  C. Lee, The large-scale freshwater cycle of the arctic, J. Geophys. Res., 111, C11010, doi:10.1029/2005JC003424, 2006.

  • Bitz, C.M., M.M. Holland, E. Hunke, and R.E. Moritz, “Maintenance of the sea-ice edge“, J. Climate, 18, p 2903-21, 2005.

  • Drucker, R.S., S. Martin and R. E. Moritz. “Ice thickness and frazil ice behavior in the St. Lawrence Island Polynya as observed with satellite, Upward Looking Sonar and salinity/temperature moorings” J. Geophys. Res. 108 (C5), 18-1 – 18-11, 2003

  • Intrieri, J. M., C. W. Fairall, M. D. Shupe, P. O. G. Perrsson, E. L. Andreas, P. L. Guest and R. E. Moritz. An annual cycle of Arctic surface cloud forcing at SHEBA, J. Geophys. Res., 107 (C10), SHE 13-1 – 13-14, 2002.

  • Morison, J. H., K. Aagaard, K. K. Falkner, K, Hatakeyama, R. Moritz, J. E. Overland, D. Perovich, K. Shimada, M. Steele, T. Takizawa, R. Woodgate, Early results from the North Pole Environmental Observatory, EOS Trans., 83(33), pp. 357, 360-361, 2002.

  • Moritz, R.E., C. M. Bitz and E. J. Steig. Dynamics of Recent Climate Change in the Arctic Science, 297 (5586), 1497-1502, 2002.

  • Uttal, T., J. A. Curry, M. G. McPhee, D. K. Perovich, R. E. Moritz, J. A. Maslanik, P. S. Guest, H. L. Stern, J. A. Moore, R. Turenne, A. Heiberg, M. C. Serreze, D. P. Wylie, O. G. Persson, C. A. Paulson, C. Halle, J. H. Morison, P. A. Wheeler, A. Makshtas, H. Welch, M. D. Shupe, J. M Intrieri, K. Stamnes, R. W. Lindsey, R. Pinkel, W. S. Pegau, T. P. Stanton, and T. C. Grenfell, Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 81, 255-275. 2002.

  • Perovich, D.K. and R. E. Moritz. Preface: The Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) J. Geophys. Res., 107 (C10), SHE 1-1 – 1-2. 2002.

  • Blackmon, M., B. Boville, F. Bryan, R. Dickinson, P. Gent, J. Kiehl, R. Moritz, D. Randall, J. Shukla, S. Solomon, G. Bonan, S. Doney, I. Fung, J. Hack, E. Hunke, J. Hurrell, J. Kutzbach, J. Meehl, B. Otto-Bliesner, R. Saravanan, E. K. Schneider, L. Sloan, M. Spall, K. Taylor, J. Tribbia, and W. Washington. The Community Climate System Model. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 82, (11), 2357-2375. 2001.

  • Beesley, J. A. and R. E. Moritz. Toward an Explanation of the Annual Cycle of Cloudiness over the Arctic Ocean. J. Climate, 12, 395-415, 1999.

  • Moritz, R.E. and C.M. Bitz. Northern Hemisphere sea ice extent, Science, 288, 924a. Technical Commentary on Vinnikov et al., 1999, Science, 286, 1934, 2000.

  • Ukita, J. and R. E. Moritz. Geometry and the deformation of pack ice: II. Simulation with a random isotropic model and implication in sea-ice rheology. Annals of Glaciology, 31, 323-326, 2000.

  • Moritz, R. E. and J. Ukita. Geometry and the deformation of pack ice: I. A simple kinematic model. Annals of Glaciology, 31, 313-322, 2000.

  • Perovich, D., E. L. Andreas, J. A. Curry, H. Eiken, C. W. Fairall, T. C. Grenfell, P. S. Guest, J. Intrieri, D. Kadko, R. W. Lindsay, M. G. McPhee, J. Morison, R. E. Moritz, C. A. Paulson, W. S. Pegau, P. O. G. Persson, R. Pinkel, J. A. Richter-Menge, T. Stanton, H. Stern, M. Sturm, W. B. Tucker III, and T. Uttal. “Year on ice gives climate insights.” EOS, Trans. Amer. Geophys. Union, 80 (41), 481-486, 1999.

  • Moritz, R. The Ice Budget of the Greenland Sea. APL-UW TR 8812, 117 pp., Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington (PhD Dissertation, Yale Univ.), 1998.

  • Battisti, D.M., C. M. Bitz and R. E. Moritz. Do general circulation models underestimate the natural variability of arctic climate? J. Climate, 10 (8), 1909-1920, 1999.

  • Ukita, J. and R. E. Moritz. “Yield curves and flow rules of pack ice ” J. Geophys. Res., 100 (C3), 4545-4557, 1996.

  • Bitz, C.M., D. S. Battisti, R. E. Moritz and J. A. Beesley. Low frequency variability in the arctic atmosphere, sea ice, and upper ocean climate system J. Climate, 9 (2), 394-408, 1996.

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