University of Alaska Fairbanks SCHOOL OF FISHERIES AND OCEAN SCIENCES  
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Photo of Stephen Okkonen

Contact Information

Institute of Marine Science
PO Box 1025
Kasilof, AK 99610
Phone: (907) 283-3234
okkonen@alaska.net

Stephen Okkonen Research Associate Professor

Physical Oceanography

Education

Research Overview

Mesoscale eddies, shelf-slope exchange, polar/sub-polar oceanography, remote sensing, frontal dynamics, satellite altimeters

Publications

Okkonen, S.R., C. Ashjian, R.G. Campbell, J.T. Clarke, S.E. Moore, and K.D. Taylor. 2011. Satellite observations of circulation features associated with a bowhead whale feeding ‘hotspot’ near Barrow, Alaska. Remote Sensing of Environment. 115:2168-2174

Ashjian, C.A., S.R. Braund, R.G. Campbell, J.C. George, J. Kruse, W. Maslowski, S.E. Moore, C.R. Nicolson, S.R. Okkonen, B.F. Sherr, E.B. Sherr, Y. Spitz. 2010. Climate Variability, Oceanography, Bowhead Whale Distribution, and Iñupiat Subsistence Whaling near Barrow, AK. Arctic, 63(2):179-194.

Okkonen, S.R., C. Ashjian, R.G. Campbell, W. Maslowski, J.L. Clement-Kinney, and R. Potter. 2009. Intrusion of warm Bering/Chukchi waters onto the western Beaufort Shelf, J. Geophys. Res, 114,C00A11,doi.10.1029/2008JC004870

Janout, M.A., T. J. Weingartner, D.L. Musgrave, S.R. Okkonen, and T.E. Whitledge. 2009. Some characteristics of Yakutat eddies propagating along the continental slope in the northern Gulf of Alaska. Deep-Sea Res. II 56(24):2444-2459.

Clement Kinney, J., W. Maslowski, S. Okkonen. 2009. On the processes controlling shelf-basin exchange and outer shelf dynamics in the Bering Sea. Deep-Sea Res. II 56(17):1351-1362, doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2008.10.023


Okkonen, S. R., and C. Bélanger. 2008. Annual period temperature and salinity signals of surface waters in Prince William Sound, Alaska, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L14604, doi:10.1029/2008GL034456

Okkonen, S.R. and C. Bélanger. 2008. A child’s view of circulation in Prince William Sound, Alaska? Oceanography. 21(2), 54-57.

Trites, A.W., A.J. Miller, H.D.G. Maschner, M.A. Alexander, S.J. Bograd, J.A. Calder, A. Capotondi, K.O. Coyle, E. Di Lorenzo, B.P. Finney, E.J. Gregr, C.E. Grosch, S.R. Hare, G.L. Hunt, Jr., J. Jahncke, N.B. Kachel, H.-J. Kim, C.A. Ladd, N.J. Mantua, C. Marzban, W. Maslowski, R. Mendelssohn, D.H. Nielson, S.R. Okkonen, J.E. Overland, K.L. Reedy-Maschner, T.C. Royer, F.B. Schwing, J.X.L. Wang and A.J. Winship, S.R. Hare, and G.L. Hunt, Jr. 2007. Bottom-up forcing and the decline of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatas) in Alaska: assessing the ocean climate hypothesis. Fish. Oceanogr., 16(1), 46–67.

Okkonen, S.R., D.L. Cutchin, and T.C. Royer. 2005. Seasonal variabilty of near-surface hydrography and frontal features in the northern Gulf of Alaska and Prince William Sound. Geophys. Res. Lett. vol. 32, L11611, doi:10.1029/2005GL023195.

Okkonen, S.R., G.M. Schmidt, E.D. Cokelet, and P.J. Stabeno. 2004. Satellite and hydrographic observations of the Bering Sea ‘Green Belt’. Deep-Sea Res. II, 51:1033-1051,doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2003.08.005.

Okkonen, S.R., T.J. Weingartner, S.L. Danielson, G.M. Schmidt and D.L. Musgrave. 2003. Satellite and hydrographic observations of eddy-induced shelf-slope exchange in the northwestern Gulf of Alaska. J. Geophys. Res., 108(C2), 3033, doi:10.1029/ 2002JC001342.

Okkonen, S.R. 2001. Altimeter observations of the Bering Slope Current eddy field, J. Geophys. Res., 106:2465-2476.

Okkonen, S.R., G.A. Jacobs, E.J. Metzger, H.E. Hurlburt, and J.F. Shriver. 2001. Mesoscale variability in the boundary currents of the Alaska Gyre, Cont. Shelf Res., 21:1219-1236.

Okkonen, S.R. 1996. The influence of an Alaskan Stream eddy on flow through Amchitka Pass, J. Geophys. Res., 101:8839-8851.

Okkonen, S.R. and G.A. Jacobs. 1996. Aliased propagating mesoscale features in altimeter data, J. Atmos. Ocean. Tech., 13:1311-1316.

Okkonen, S.R. and H.J. Niebauer. 1995. Ice edge circulation in the Bering Sea from Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler observations, Cont. Shelf Res., 15:1879-1902.

Okkonen, S.R. 1993. Observations of topographic planetary waves in the Bering Slope Current using the Geosat altimeter, J. Geophys. Res., 98:22603-22613.

Okkonen, S.R., 1992. The shedding of an anticyclonic eddy from the Alaskan Stream as observed by the Geosat Altimeter, Geophys. Res. Lett., 19(24), 2397—2400.