Applied Physics Laboratory-UW

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