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Program Activity |
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| Dr. Swadhin Behera from our group attended the recent Pacific Ocean Remote Sensing Conference (PORSEC) 2002 held in Bali, Indonesia. There were about 150 presentations from equal number of foreign and local participants. Several new aspects of the ocean remote sensing were discussed during the conference. This includes advancement in the satellite remote sensing of sea surface salinity and under water remote sensing for rainfall. Dr. Behera presented a co-authored paper by Program Director Prof. Toshio Yamagata and other colleagues in the group. The paper clarified some misleading aspects about the Indian Ocean Dipole raised recently in the climate research community and was applauded by many participants. Local researchers paid a lot of attention to the presentation as the effect of the phenomenon is most pronounced in the region. It is thought that the advent of new satellite data will be very useful for the prediction of the Indian Ocean Dipole events. |
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As our Program Director Yasunari, and Sub Group Leader of Cloud and Precipitation group, Yamasaki received 2002 Fujiwara Award of Meteorological Society of Japan, IGCR Formal Seminar by the two recipients, titled "Role of GEWEX Asian Monsoon Experiment (GAME) in the Climate and Hydrological Studies in Asia" and "Study of Tropical Cyclones and Tropical Disturbances - |
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| Report of the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project (PMIP) Meeting by Rumi Ohgaito Dr. Abe-Ouchi, Dr. Hargreaves and I attended the PMIP meeting held from 23 to 26 June 2002 in Cambridge University, England. The aim of the PMIP project is to evaluate paleoclimate experiments and improve our understandings of the past climate changes under international cooperation. Research on both observational data and model experiments for the Last Glacier Maximum (about 21,000 years ago) and the climate optimum period (about 6,000 years ago) were compared and investigated. Under the clear sky yet in a little chilly weather, the conference was held at one of the University halls, which was designed in "Japanese style". The presentations of each group were made and the setting of PMIP new subjects was discussed substantially. In the evening, Dr. Hargreaves who spent her graduate school period in Cambridge University kindly showed us around the beautiful campus. |
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Program Director, Dr. Hajime Akimoto, and 10 other colleagues of ACRP joined the meeting and contributed their latest achievements. The meeting, as it is titled "Atmospheric Chemistry within the Earth System: From Regional Pollution to Global Change," covers a wide range of issues on the tropospheric compositions -greenhouse gases, oxidants, acidic substances, and aerosols -including their natural variability, anthropogenic impacts exerted, and their roles in the context of global change. One of the highlights in this meeting was a cluster of presentations on ongoing as well as completed regional field studies across the globe, in which well-instrumented aircraft/ships/ground-based stations are intensively coordinated according to their scientific objectives. Atmospheric chemists in Japan have surely contributed a lot in such activities especially in Asia and the western Pacific region. Huge database collected in field studies has helped and will keep helping a lot for validating and refining chemical-transport models. At the end of the Symposium, Dr. Anne Thompson of NASA/GSFC succeeded as the next CACGP chair from Dr. Akimoto who had been serving as the chair since 1998. |
