This international joint research activities was
established in order to co-operate on international research programs
for an improved understanding of the nature and predictability of
climate variability and regional aspects of global environmental
change in the Asia-Pacific sector between University of Hawaii (UH)
and Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC).
Background
On October 16, 1997, UH established the International Pacific Research
Center ("IPRC") as a unit of its School of Ocean and Earth
Science and Technology ("SOEST") with the following designated
mission: To provide an international, state-of-the-art research
environment to improve understanding of the nature and predictability
of climate variability and regional aspects of global environmental
change in the Asia-Pacific sector;
Purpose
The purpose of the IPRC is to provide a home for a close collaborative
research effort on global change in the Asia-Pacific sector by interested
scientists from all over the world, to improve the understanding
of the mechanisms of climate variability particular to the Asia-Pacific
sector, and to predict impacts of global change in the Asia-Pacific
sector.
Institutional Objectives
| (1) |
promote Japan-US scientific cooperation for improving the
understanding of the nature and predictability of Asia-Pacific
aspects of global environmental change and their connectivity
with adjoining regions of the world. |
| (2) |
encourage multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary scientific
research programs; |
| (3) |
conduct scientific programs and projects on the basis of
their regional relevance and scientific merit; |
| (4) |
pursue on a regional scale research that is particularly
relevant to the scientific objectives of the IPRC, including
interfacing with the International Arctic Research Center (IARC); |
| (5) |
foster standardization, collection, analysis and exchange
of scientific data relevant to the IPRC's scientific objectives; |
| (6) |
promote cooperation with other research institutions; |
| (7) |
improve the scientific and technical capabilities and research
infrastructure of the region in this area of research, where
necessary, by identifying and promoting the development of facilities
for the implementation of data management and by the scientific
and technical training of professionals; |
| (8) |
improve public awareness and provide scientific information
to governments for the development of public policy relevant
to Asia-Pacific sector aspects of global environmental change
|
Scientific Objectives
| (1) |
Indo-Pacific ocean climate
- dentify the ocean-atmosphere processes that cause decadal
variability in the extratropical North Pacific
- dentify the oceanic and atmospheric processes that modulate
ENSO on decadal time scales
- Extratropical air-sea interactions and feedbacks
- Determine the oceanic processes that maintain the Pacific-Ocean
general circulation and that cause its climatic variability
- Determine the nature and causes of Indian-Ocean SST variability
on interannual-to-decadal time scales
|
| (2) |
Regional-ocean influences
- Determine the processes that maintain the Kuroshio, Oyashio
and their Extensions and that cause their climatic variability
- Identify the processes that maintain the low-latitude
western-boundary currents of the Pacific Ocean and that
cause their climatic variability
- Determine the influences of the East-Asian marginal seas
and the Indonesian Throughflow on the Asia-Pacific climate
system
|
| (3) |
Asian-Australian Monsoon system
- Understand the monsoon annual cycle and intraseasonal
variability
- Determine the causes of interannual-to-interdecadal variability
of the monsoon
- Understand the role of atmosphere-ocean-land interactions
in monsoon predictability
- Understand the monsoon hydrological cycle and its impact
on Asia-Pacific climate
|
| (4) |
Impacts of global environmental change
- Determine the impacts of changing external forcing on
Asia-Pacific climate
- Determine the sensitivity of the Asia-Pacific climate
system and hydrological cycle to changes in land-surface
characteristics
|
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