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Climate Variations Model Group

The "climate variation model group" mainly conducts research on mechanisms of atmospheric and oceanic variations in low and mid-latitudes in the Indo-Pacific sector and their predictability by using atmosphere, ocean and coupled general circulation models. The main topics are;

  1. to elucidate mechanisms and teleconnections of atmosphere-ocean coupled phenomena in the tropical region such as the Indian Ocean Dipole Mode events and El Niño /Southern Oscillation (ENSO),
  2. to develop and ocean weather forecast system for seas adjacent to Japan and to study on predictability of variations of the Kuroshio transport and its path south of Japan.



Figure: Schematics of the Indian Ocean Dipole Mode (IOD). In a normal year, cumulus convection is active over the maritime continent, the westeries blow over the tropical Indian Ocean and the sea surface temperature (SST) is nearly homogeneous in zonal direction (upper). In IOD years, reserved zonal winds lead to upwelling in the eastern tropical Indian Ocean and warm pool shifts to the west. This brings westward migration of the active cumulus convection (lower).

To Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) Home Page