Applied Physics Laboratory-UW

09/15/2026

Real-Time Data on Olympic Coast Helps Fishers Make Critical Decisions🎣

In NOAA Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, two seasonal oceanographic moorings now transmit near real-time information about bottom dissolved oxygen and other ocean conditions.

These upgrades to oceanographic moorings are helping turn long-term monitoring into practical information that fishers, tribal resource managers, sanctuary staff, and scientists can use to guide time-sensitive decisions. This innovative work is made possible through partnerships among the sanctuary, Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems (NANOOS), University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory-UW, and the Coastal Treaty Tribes—the Hoh Tribe, Makah Tribe, Quileute Tribe, and Quinault Indian Nation and through funds provided by NOAA's Climate Program Office and the Washington Ocean Acidification Center.

🔗 Learn more about the data and how it is used: https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/news/2026/olympic-coast-real-time-data-helps-fishers-make-critical-decisions.html. UW EarthLab

📸: NOAA

04/08/2026

Antarctic sea ice has behaved unexpectedly: growing for decades, then suddenly shrinking after 2016.
Using nearly two decades of data collected by hundreds of robotic floats drifting under sea ice, Ethan Campbell, Postdoctoral Scholar, APL-UW / Polar Science Center-UW, and colleagues explain how an abundance of precipitation freshened the ocean surface before 2016, trapping ocean heat below and allowing sea ice to expand. Then, stronger winds drove upwelling that broke through this ‘lid’, releasing ocean heat and triggering sea ice melt.

https://lnkd.in/gxrd6x8C

04/07/2026

As sea ice declines, more sunlight is reaching the Arctic Ocean, making it brighter and warmer. Over the past 40 years the added heat has melted 1 meter of Arctic sea ice. Melinda Webster, Principal Oceanographer, APL-UW Polar Science Center-UW, and her co-authors explain how these changes could reshape the polar marine ecosystem, especially in the southern Arctic regions where the solar heating is strongest.

Read the details here: "A Brighter Arctic Ocean: Trends in Solar Partitioning in the Arctic Sea Ice - Ocean System From 1984 to 2024"
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025GL120478

03/11/2026

Turbines spinning underwater to capture tidal energy pose a risk to marine animals. Though rare, collisions are a grave concern.

UW researchers are focusing cameras and mounting small sensors on the turbine blades to study the risks of animal interactions with marine renewable energy technologies.

Cameras: https://lnkd.in/g7ERAMSr

Sensors: https://lnkd.in/gQQRSW6g

01/22/2026

Technologies invented by researchers at the Lab’s Center for Industrial & Medical Ultrasound and their multi-institutional collaborators reached a commercial milestone.

SonoMotion announced that it received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance for its Break Wave lithotripsy device. The technology licensed from UW and commercialized by SonoMotion non-invasively fragments stones in kidney or ureter on fully awake patients, without anesthesia, and at any site of care.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sonomotion-announces-fda-clearance-for-its-break-wave-lithotripsy-device-for-treatment-of-kidney-stones-302666229.html

The team’s research progressed through theoretical and laboratory studies, work in animal models, human feasibility studies, and randomized human clinical trials with results submitted to FDA. The team continues to improve the technologies. Senior Principal Engineer Mike Bailey add, “This technology isn’t just another tool that might work better to treat kidney stones. We are proving that this approved device can access a different set of patients.”

https://www.apl.washington.edu/project/project.php?id=pushing_stones

/PRNewswire/ -- SonoMotion, a venture-backed medical device company developing non-invasive solutions for kidney stones, announced today that it received U.S....

10/09/2025

The Pacific Ocean is currently experiencing a massive heat wave. Sensors like those managed by NANOOS send information about ocean conditions back to shore where they can be used by scientists, commerce and industry, and the public. During our government shutdown scientists are on leave, but thanks to congressional support of NANOOS, data are still available on https://nvs.nanoos.org

Jan Newton, NANOOS Executive Director and APL-UW Senior Principal Oceanographer, recently spoke with KUOW Public Radio about the Pacific heat wave and noted that Washington state has escaped the excessive heat so far.

https://www.kuow.org/stories/return-of-the-blob-heat-wave-spans-pacific-ocean

A massive heat wave is hitting the Pacific Ocean from Kamchatka to California.

09/22/2025

APL-UW investigator Peter Gaube contributed to a paper with former APL-UW post docs Martin Arostegui and Camrin Braun highlighting the important roles of mid-sized predators, such as bigscale pomfret, linking the upper and lower layers of the ocean foodweb.

WHOI scientists delve into the elusive fish’s role in the food web

04/24/2025

SonoMotion, the company spun off from the non-invasive treatment technology developed by UW and Center for Industrial & Medical Ultrasound researchers, has received funding to support a multi-center clinical trial. Results from this study to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of fragmenting stones in the ureter or kidney will support a future submission for FDA device approval.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sonomotion-completes-enrollment-in-pivotal-clinical-trial-for-break-wave-system-and-secures-2-2-million-nih-grant-302436634.html

11/07/2024

The latest Puget Sound Marine Waters report combines a wealth of data from comprehensive monitoring programs — many managed by APL-UW researchers — and provides a concise summary of what was happening in Puget Sound and on the Washington Coast. Since 2011, the collective of contributors has reported the physical, chemical, and biological conditions of Puget Sound, including many conditions related to human health and pollution.

PUGET SOUND RECOVERY     ABOUT THE PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMS     STAFF     EMPLOYMENT     COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT     FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES     PRESS     BLOG     CONTACT    MAKING WAVES MAGAZINE NATIONAL ESTUARY PROGRAM

11/05/2024

The ultrasound technologies developed at UW to treat kidney stone disease have been demonstrated safe and effective. In a recent interview, Mike Bailey, an APL-UW Senior Principal Engineer and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, describes the journey of research team members who created the medical devices and saw them through the clinical trial and commercialization processes.
https://www.me.washington.edu/news/article/2024-11/04/sound-solutions