Rebecca Woodgate

Last updated
Rebecca Woodgate
Alma materUniversity of Oxford
Scientific career
Thesis Data assimilation in ocean models  (1994)

Rebecca Woodgate is a professor at the University of Washington known for her work on ocean circulation in polar regions.

Contents

Education and career

Woodgate has a B.A. from the University of Cambridge (1990) and a Ph.D. from the University of Oxford (1994). [1] Following her Ph.D., she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. [2] In 1999, she moved to the University of Washington [2] and, as of 2022, she is a professor at the University of Washington. [1]

Research

Woodgate's early research centered on data assimilation in models [3] and currents near Greenland. [4] She has examined physical properties of the water masses in the Arctic Ocean, and the movement of the water masses in the region. [5] [6] Her research also focuses on the flow of freshwater through the Bering Strait [7] and the changes in the water flowing through the Bering Strait over time. [8] [9] Woodgate's research also informs understanding of the role of freshwater in the Arctic, [10] [11] and the interactions between the Arctic Ocean and sea ice in the region. [12] [13] Her research uses moored instruments to observe conditions in the Arctic Ocean. [14] [15]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Greenland Current</span> Current from Fram Strait to Cape Farewell off the eastern coat of Greenland

The East Greenland Current (EGC) is a cold, low-salinity current that extends from Fram Strait (~80N) to Cape Farewell (~60N). The current is located off the eastern coast of Greenland along the Greenland continental margin. The current cuts through the Nordic Seas and through the Denmark Strait. The current is of major importance because it directly connects the Arctic to the Northern Atlantic, it is a major contributor to sea ice export out of the Arctic, and it is a major freshwater sink for the Arctic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan M. Gregory</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apparent oxygen utilisation</span> Method for measuring oxygen level change in water

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Fiona McLaughlin is a senior Oceanographer, employed by Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans. McLaughlin joined government service in 1972. Since 1994 she has concentrated on the ecology of the Arctic Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Spitsbergen Current</span> Warm, salty current that runs poleward just west of Spitsbergen

The West Spitsbergen Current (WSC) is a warm, salty current that runs poleward just west of Spitsbergen,, in the Arctic Ocean. The WSC branches off the Norwegian Atlantic Current in the Norwegian Sea. The WSC is of importance because it drives warm and salty Atlantic Water into the interior Arctic. The warm and salty WSC flows north through the eastern side of Fram Strait, while the East Greenland Current (EGC) flows south through the western side of Fram Strait. The EGC is characterized by being very cold and low in salinity, but above all else it is a major exporter of Arctic sea ice. Thus, the EGC combined with the warm WSC makes the Fram Strait the northernmost ocean area having ice-free conditions throughout the year in all of the global ocean.

The Arctic dipole anomaly is a pressure pattern characterized by high pressure on the arctic regions of North America and low pressure on those of Eurasia. This pattern sometimes replaces the Arctic oscillation and the North Atlantic oscillation. It was observed for the first time in the first decade of 2000s and is perhaps linked to recent climate change. The Arctic dipole lets more southern winds into the Arctic Ocean resulting in more ice melting. The summer 2007 event played an important role in the record low sea ice extent which was recorded in September. The Arctic dipole has also been linked to changes in arctic circulation patterns that cause drier winters in Northern Europe, but much wetter winters in Southern Europe and colder winters in East Asia, Europe and the eastern half of North America.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlantification of the Arctic</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seismic oceanography</span>

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Marika Holland is a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research known for her work on modeling sea ice and its role in the global climate.

Phyllis Jean Stabeno is a physical oceanographer known for her research on the movement of water in polar regions. She has led award-winning research projects in the Arctic and was noted for a distinguished scientific career by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faroe-Bank Channel overflow</span> Overflow current from Nordic Seas towards North Atlantic Ocean

Cold and dense water from the Nordic Seas is transported southwards as Faroe-Bank Channel overflow. This water flows from the Arctic Ocean into the North Atlantic through the Faroe-Bank Channel between the Faroe Islands and Scotland. The overflow transport is estimated to contribute to one-third of the total overflow over the Greenland-Scotland Ridge. The remaining two-third of overflow water passes through Denmark Strait, the Wyville Thomson Ridge (0.3 Sv), and the Iceland-Faroe Ridge (1.1 Sv).

The Agulhas Leakage is an inflow of anomalously warm and saline water from the Indian Ocean into the South Atlantic due to the limited latitudinal extent of the African continent compared to the southern extension of the subtropical super gyre in the Indian Ocean. The process occurs during the retroflection of the Agulhas Current via shedding of anticyclonic Agulhas Rings, cyclonic eddies and direct inflow. The leakage contributes to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) by supplying its upper limb, which has direct climate implications.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subglacial lakes on Mars</span>

Salty subglacial lakes are controversially inferred from radar measurements to exist below the South Polar Layered Deposits (SPLD) in Ultimi Scopuli of Mars' southern ice cap. The idea of subglacial lakes due to basal melting at the polar ice caps on Mars was first hypothesized in the 1980s. For liquid water to persist below the SPLD, researchers propose that perchlorate is dissolved in the water, which lowers the freezing temperature, but other explanations such as saline ice or hydrous minerals have been offered. Challenges for explaining sufficiently warm conditions for liquid water to exist below the southern ice cap include low amounts of geothermal heating from the subsurface and overlying pressure from the ice. As a result, it is disputed whether radar detections of bright reflectors were instead caused by other materials such as saline ice or deposits of minerals such as clays. While lakes with salt concentrations 20 times that of the ocean pose challenges for life, potential subglacial lakes on Mars are of high interest for astrobiology because microbial ecosystems have been found in deep subglacial lakes on Earth, such as in Lake Whillans in Antarctica below 800 m of ice.

Stephanie Louise Pfirman is a professor at Arizona State University known for her work on sea ice, pollutants in sea ice, and how sea ice is changing over time. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

References

  1. 1 2 "APL-UW Website - Profile - Rebecca Woodgate". www.apl.washington.edu. Retrieved 2022-02-28.
  2. 1 2 "Woodgate CV" (PDF). University of Washington. Retrieved February 28, 2022.
  3. Woodgate, Rebecca A.; Killworth, Peter D. (1997-08-01). "The Effects of Assimilation on the Physics of an Ocean Model. Part I: Theoretical Model and Barotropic Results". Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology. 14 (4): 897–909. Bibcode:1997JAtOT..14..897W. doi: 10.1175/1520-0426(1997)014<0897:TEOAOT>2.0.CO;2 . ISSN   0739-0572.
  4. Woodgate, Rebecca A.; Fahrbach, Eberhard; Rohardt, Gerd (1999-08-15). "Structure and transports of the East Greenland Current at 75°N from moored current meters". Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. 104 (C8): 18059–18072. Bibcode:1999JGR...10418059W. doi: 10.1029/1999JC900146 . S2CID   128623997.
  5. Woodgate, Rebecca A; Aagaard, Knut; Muench, Robin D; Gunn, John; Björk, Göran; Rudels, Bert; Roach, A.T; Schauer, Ursula (2001). "The Arctic Ocean Boundary Current along the Eurasian slope and the adjacent Lomonosov Ridge: Water mass properties, transports and transformations from moored instruments". Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers. 48 (8): 1757–1792. Bibcode:2001DSRI...48.1757W. doi:10.1016/S0967-0637(00)00091-1.
  6. Woodgate, Rebecca A.; Aagaard, Knut; Weingartner, Thomas J. (2005). "A year in the physical oceanography of the Chukchi Sea: Moored measurements from autumn 1990–1991". Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography. 52 (24–26): 3116–3149. Bibcode:2005DSRII..52.3116W. doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2005.10.016. S2CID   32959644.
  7. Woodgate, Rebecca A. (2005). "Revising the Bering Strait freshwater flux into the Arctic Ocean". Geophysical Research Letters. 32 (2): L02602. Bibcode:2005GeoRL..32.2602W. doi: 10.1029/2004GL021747 . ISSN   0094-8276. S2CID   129640531.
  8. Woodgate, Rebecca A.; Weingartner, Thomas J.; Lindsay, Ron (2012-12-18). "Observed increases in Bering Strait oceanic fluxes from the Pacific to the Arctic from 2001 to 2011 and their impacts on the Arctic Ocean water column". Geophysical Research Letters. 39 (24). Bibcode:2012GeoRL..3924603W. doi: 10.1029/2012gl054092 . ISSN   0094-8276. S2CID   12841025.
  9. Woodgate, Rebecca A.; Aagaard, Knut; Weingartner, Thomas J. (2006). "Interannual changes in the Bering Strait fluxes of volume, heat and freshwater between 1991 and 2004". Geophysical Research Letters. 33 (15). Bibcode:2006GeoRL..3315609W. doi: 10.1029/2006gl026931 . ISSN   0094-8276. S2CID   129816755.
  10. Serreze, Mark C.; Barrett, Andrew P.; Slater, Andrew G.; Woodgate, Rebecca A.; Aagaard, Knut; Lammers, Richard B.; Steele, Michael; Moritz, Richard; Meredith, Michael; Lee, Craig M. (2006-11-21). "The large-scale freshwater cycle of the Arctic". Journal of Geophysical Research. 111 (C11): C11010. Bibcode:2006JGRC..11111010S. doi: 10.1029/2005JC003424 . ISSN   0148-0227.
  11. Rawlins, Michael A.; Steele, Michael; Holland, Marika M.; Adam, Jennifer C.; Cherry, Jessica E.; Francis, Jennifer A.; Groisman, Pavel Ya; Hinzman, Larry D.; Huntington, Thomas G.; Kane, Douglas L.; Kimball, John S. (2010-11-01). "Analysis of the Arctic System for Freshwater Cycle Intensification: Observations and Expectations". Journal of Climate. 23 (21): 5715–5737. Bibcode:2010JCli...23.5715R. doi: 10.1175/2010JCLI3421.1 . ISSN   1520-0442.
  12. Woodgate, Rebecca A.; Weingartner, Tom; Lindsay, Ron (2010). "The 2007 Bering Strait oceanic heat flux and anomalous Arctic sea-ice retreat: 2007 BERING STRAIT OCEANIC HEAT FLUX". Geophysical Research Letters. 37 (1): n/a. doi:10.1029/2009GL041621. S2CID   38378097.
  13. Zhang, Jinlun; Woodgate, Rebecca; Moritz, Richard (2010-08-01). "Sea Ice Response to Atmospheric and Oceanic Forcing in the Bering Sea". Journal of Physical Oceanography. 40 (8): 1729–1747. Bibcode:2010JPO....40.1729Z. doi: 10.1175/2010JPO4323.1 . ISSN   1520-0485.
  14. Woodgate, Rebecca; Stafford, Kathleen; Prahl, Fredrick (2015-09-01). "A Synthesis of Year-Round Interdisciplinary Mooring Measurements in the Bering Strait (1990–2014) and the RUSALCA Years (2004–2011)". Oceanography. 28 (3): 46–67. doi: 10.5670/oceanog.2015.57 .
  15. Woodgate, Rebecca A. (2018). "Increases in the Pacific inflow to the Arctic from 1990 to 2015, and insights into seasonal trends and driving mechanisms from year-round Bering Strait mooring data". Progress in Oceanography. 160: 124–154. Bibcode:2018PrOce.160..124W. doi: 10.1016/j.pocean.2017.12.007 .