Dr. Morison’s main focus centers on the study of Arctic Ocean change. He has been the principal investigator for the NSF-supported North Pole Environmental Observatory since 2000. He is involved with using remote sensing, principally NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), to track changes in Arctic Ocean Circulation and freshwater distribution. He is also continuing a long-term interest in small-scale processes by studying interplay among Arctic change, internal waves and mixing.
Jamie Morison
In The News
ICESat-2 Launches, Promising New Era of Glaciology and Polar Oceanography
The Applied Physics Laboratory-UW interviews PSC’s Jamie Morison and Ben Smith about ICESat-2, their roles in the NASA project and how it will improve research efforts and data. Watch the video here or on APL’s YouTube channel.
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UW scientists monitoring arctic ice by NASA satellite
PSC’s Jamie Morison and Ben Smith are interviewed by KING 5 news about NASA’s latest space laser, Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), which launches 15 September. ICESat-2 helps monitor glaciers, sea ice and ice sheets via NASA satellite technology. Watch the interview to learn more.
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Greater role for Atlantic inflows on sea-ice loss in the Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean
Matt Alkire, John Guthrie and Jamie Morison were part of an international team of researchers that studied the effects of the Atlantic Ocean on sea ice cover in the eastern Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean. Read the findings published in Science Magazine.
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Concern over impacts on climate research
News station KING 5 interviews PSC’s Jamie Morison, as environmental policies change under the new administration resulting in strong, public response. Watch the clip of the PSC oceanographer discussing his own research observations, Arctic data available from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), and the need to continue polar research.
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Selected Projects
Comparison of GRACE with In Situ Ocean Bottom Pressure and Hydrography in the North Pole Region
This project will compare in situ measurements of ocean bottom pressure and hydrography with GRACE estimates of time-varying ocean bottom pressure. Arctic Bottom Pressure Recorders have been deployed and extensive hydrographic measurements have been made under other projects. Comparisons with some of these measurements suggest that GRACE can provide sorely needed large-scale, continuous information on the changing Arctic Ocean circulation. Our North Pole in situ measurements are particularly useful for GRACE validation because the GRACE footprint passes over the North Pole more frequently than any other ocean location on earth, making comparisons there robust. GRACE appears to provide our first…
read more »Sensitivity of Arctic Ocean Change to Background Mixing
This project is motivated by recent findings showing the sensitivity of Arctic Ocean circulation to background deep-ocean diapycnal mixing. Mixing in the stratified ocean is related to internal wave energy, which tends to be low under the Arctic Ocean ice cover. Consequently, as ice cover declines background mixing may increase and, among other changes, bring more Atlantic Water heat to the surface to melt ice, a potentially important positive climate feedback. To understand the influence of background mixing and to improve models of the changing Arctic Ocean, we are taking advantage of the latest analysis techniques to examine existing internal…
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North Pole Environmental Observatory
The observatory is staffed by an international research team that establishes a camp at the North Pole each spring to take the pulse of the Arctic Ocean and learn how the world’s northernmost sea helps regulate global climate.
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Selected Publications
Peterson, P.K., Hartwig, M., May, N.W., Schwartz, E., Rigor, I., Ermold, W., Steele, M., Morison, J.H., Nghiem, S.V. and Pratt, K.A., Snowpack measurements suggest role for multi-year sea ice regions in Arctic atmospheric bromine and chlorine chemistry. Elem. Sci. Anth., 7(1), 14, doi:10.1525/elementa.352, 2019.
, , , , & 2018. Arctic ice-ocean coupling and gyre equilibration observed with remote sensing. Geophysical Research Letters, 45. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076229
Alkire, M.B., J. Morison, A. Schweiger, J. Zhang, M. Steele, C. Peralta-Ferriz, and S. Dickinson, A meteoric water budget for the Arctic Ocean, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 122, doi:10.1002/2017JC012807, 2017.
Zhang, J., Steele, M., Runciman, K., Dewey, S., Morison, J., Lee, C., Rainville, L., Cole, S., Krishfield, R., Timmermans, M.L. and Toole, J., The Beaufort Gyre intensification and stabilization: A model‐observation synthesis, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 121(11), 7933-7952, doi:10.1002/2016JC012196, 2016.
, , , , , , and (2016), Sea ice melt onset associated with lead opening during the spring/summer transition near the North Pole, J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 121, 2499–2522, doi:10.1002/2015JC011588.
Peralta-Ferriz, C., J. H. Morison, J. M. Wallace, J. Bonin and J. Zhang (2014), Arctic Ocean circulation patterns revealed by GRACE, J. Climate, 27, 1445–1468, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00013.1.
Lique, C., J. Guthrie, M. Steele, A. Proshutinsky, J. H. Morison, and R. Krishfield, Diffusive vertical heat flux in the Canada Basin of the Arctic Ocean inferred from moored instruments, J. Geophys. Res., 119, doi:10.1002/2013JC009346, 2014.
De Steur, L., M. Steele, E. Hansen, J. Morison, I. Polyakov, S. M. Olsen, H. Melling, F. A. McLaughlin, R. Kwok, W. M. Smethie Jr., and P. Schlosser, Hydrographic changes in the Lincoln Sea in the Arctic Ocean with focus on an upper ocean freshwater anomaly between 2007 and 2010, J. Geophys. Res., 118, 4699–4715, doi:10.1002jgrc.20341, 2013.
Morison, J., R. Kwok, C. Peralta-Ferriz, M. Alkire, I. Rigor, R. Andersen, and M. Steele, Changing Arctic Ocean Freshwater Pathways Measured With ICESat and GRACE, Nature, 481, 66-70, doi:10.1038/nature10705, 2012.
Peralta-Ferriz, C., J. H. Morison, J. M. Wallace and J. Zhang, (2011), A basin-coherent mode of sub-monthly variability in Arctic Ocean bottom pressure, Geophys. Res. Lett, 38, L14606, doi:10.1029/2011GL048142.
Peralta-Ferriz, C. and J. Morison, “Understanding the annual cycle of the Arctic Ocean bottom pressure”, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L10603, doi:10.1029/2010GL042827, 2010.
Proshutinsky, A., M.-L. Timmermans, I. Ashik, A. Beszczynska-Moeller, E. Carmack, I. Frolov, R. Krishfield, F. McLaughlin, J. Morison, I. Polyakov, K. Shimada, V. Sokolov, M. Steele, J. Toole, and R. Woodgate, The Arctic, c. Ocean [in “State of the Climate in 2009”], Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 91 (6), S85-87, 2010.
Sirevaag, A., M.G. McPhee, J.H. Morison, W.J. Shaw, and T.P. Stanton, ‘Wintertime mixed layer measurements at Maud Rise, Weddell Sea‘, J. Geophys. Res., 115, doi:10.1029/2008JC005141, 2010.
Kwok, R., S. Farrell, R. Forsberg, K. Giles, S. Laxon, D. McAdoo, J. Morison, L. Padman, C. Peralta-Ferriz, A. Proshutinsky, and M. Steele, Combining satellite altimetry, time-variable gravity, and bottom pressure observations to understand the Arctic Ocean: A transformative opportunity, in Hall, J., D. E. Harrison and D. Stammer (eds.) Proc. of the “OceanObs09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society” Conference (Vol. 2), Venice, Italy, 21-25 September 2009, ESA Publication WPP-306, [Refereed], doi:10.5270/OceanObs09.cwp.50, 2010.
Alkire, M.B., K.K. Falkner, J. Morison, R.W. Collier, C.K.Guay, R.A. Desiderio, I.G. Rigor, M. McPhee (2010). Sensor-based profiles of the NO parameter in the central Arctic and southern Canada Basin: new insights regarding the cold halocline, Deep-Sea Research I 57: 1432-1443, 2010.
Shaw, W.J., T.P. Stanton, M.G. McPhee, J.H. Morison, and D.G. Martinson,’ Role of the upper ocean in the energy budget of Arctic sea ice during SHEBA’, J. Geophys. Res., 114, doi:10.1029/2008JC004991, 2009.
Zhang J., M. Steele, R. Lindsay, A. Schweiger, J. Morison, Ensemble 1-Year predictions of Arctic sea ice for the spring and summer of 2008, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L08502, doi:10.1029/2008GL033244.
Morison, J., J. Wahr, R. Kwok, and C. Peralta-Ferriz,’ Recent trends in Arctic Ocean mass distribution revealed by GRACE’, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L07602, doi:10.1029/2006GL029016, 2007.
Alkire, M. B., K. K. Falkner, I. Rigor, M. Steele, and J. H. Morison, The return of Pacific waters to the upper layers of the central Arctic Ocean, Deep-Sea Res. Part I, 54, 1509–1529, 2007.
Richter-Menge, J., J. Overland, A. Proshutinsky, V. Romanovsky, L. Bengtsson, L. Brigham, M. Dyurgerov, J.C. Gascard, S. Gerland, R. Graversen, C. Haas, M. Karcher, P. Kuhry, J. Maslanik, H. Melling, W. Maslowski, J. Morison, D. Perovich, R. Przybylak, V. Rachold, I.G. Rigor, A. Shiklomanov, J. Stroeve, D. Walker, and J. Walsh,’ State of the Arctic‘, NOAA OAR Special Report, NOAA/OAR/PMEL, Seattle, WA, 36 pp, 2006.
, , , , and , Relaxation of central Arctic Ocean hydrography to pre-1990s climatology, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L17604, doi:10.1029/2006GL026826, 2006.
Polyakov, I.V., Beszczynska, A., Carmack, E.C., Dmitrenko, I.A., Fahrbach, E., Frolov, I.E., Gerdes, R., Hansen, E., Holfort, J., Ivanov, V.V., Johnson, M.A., Karcher, M., Kauker, F., Morison, J., Orvik, K.A., Schauer, U., Simmons, H.L., Skagseth, Ø., Sokolov, V.T., Steele, M., Timokhov, L.A., Walsh, D., Walsh, J.E., One more step toward a warmer Arctic, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L17605, doi:10.1029/2005GL023740, 2005.
Falkner, K., M. Steele, R. Woodgate, J. Swift, K. Aagaard, and J. Morison, Dissolved oxygen extrema in the Arctic Ocean halocline from the North Pole to the Lincoln Sea, Deep-Sea Res. I, 52(7), 1138-1154, doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2005.01.0072005, 2005.
, , , , , and , Circulation of summer Pacific halocline water in the Arctic Ocean, J. Geophys. Res., 109(C2), C02027, doi:10.1029/2003JC002009, 2004.
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, North Pole Environmental Observatory delivers early results, Eos Trans. AGU, 83(33), 357–361, doi:10.1029/2002EO000259, 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.
Morison, J. H., K. Aagaard, and M. Steele, Recent environmental changes in the Arctic: A review, Arctic, 53(4), 359-371, 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.
Morison, J., K. Aagaard, and M. Steele, Report on: The study of the Arctic Change workshop, Report #8, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 1998.
Morison, J.H., M. Steele, and R. Andersen, Hydrography of the upper Arctic Ocean measured from the nuclear submarine USS Pargo, Deep Sea Res. I, 45, 15-38, doi:10.1016/S0967-0637(97)00025-3, 1998.
, , and , Halocline water formation in the Barents Sea, J. Geophys. Res., 100(C1), 881–894, doi:10.1029/94JC02310, 1995.
, and , Hydrography and vertical fluxes of heat and salt northeast of Svalbard in autumn, J. Geophys. Res., 98(C6), 10013–10024, doi:10.1029/93JC00937, 1993.
Steele, M. and J.H. Morison, 1992: Obtaining Smooth Hydrographic Profiles from a Buoy Deployed in Sea Ice, J. Atmos. and Ocean. Technol., 9, 812-826, doi:, , and , The partition of air-ice-ocean momentum exchange as a function of ice concentration, floe size, and draft, J. Geophys. Res., 94(C9), 12739–12750, doi:10.1029/JC094iC09p12739, 1989.