| Program Activity |
Climate Variations Research Program |
| We are happy to introduce Dr. Haruo Terasaka, who has joined
our program in this October. I have been temporally transferred from the Toshiba Corporation since this October. I majored in mechanical engineering. After joining the Toshiba, I studied mainly on thermal-hydraulic phenomena and numerical analysis methods in the field of nuclear engineering and environment. I was involved in research and development on boiling water reactors, fast-breeder reactors, drinking water treatment plants and so on. For last three years, I had been studying large-scale computational fluid dynamics and its visualization at Institute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University. At the FRSGC, I would like to try working on the advancement of Japan Coastal Ocean Predictability Experiment (JCOPE), which is one of the main research themes of the Climate Variations Research Program. As I mentioned, my background is engineering and it is a first time for me to conduct a research in the field of science. So, everything happening here is new to me. There are many things I admire, astonished, and also feel somewhat different. By remembering this fresh feeling, I should like to make my contribution to the FRSGC's activities. |
Hydrological Cycle Research Program |
| Land surface processes takes an important role in energy and water exchange at lower boundary of the atmosphere, and is one of the essential components in climate modeling. A land surface model, Minimal Advanced Treatments of Surface Interaction and Runoff (MATSIRO), was developed for climate studies including the necessary processes as simple as possible (Takata, Emori and Watanabe, 2003). In MATSIRO, energy and water balances are calculated at the vegetation and ground surfaces. Since the balances largely vary with and without snow cover, they are calculated separately in snow-covered and snow-free portions. The rate of snow coverage at sub-grid scale is estimated from snow amount. Snow cover reflectivity significantly affects the energy balance, thus it is estimated considering time since last snowfall and snow temperature. Transpiration of vegetation is calculated using a simple photosynthesis model. Soil has multiple layers so that it can represent frozen ground. A runoff model that considers simplified sub-grid topography is implemented. Sub-leader Dr. Takata and her coauthors have validated MATSIRO using the observation data in Tundra region, and examined the sensitivity of major parameters for heat, water and CO2 fluxes. Dr. Motoya and his coauthors have examined the model's global water balance using a global atmospheric data set, and studied the effect of precipitation gauge correction. We expect these researches will deepen our understanding of the land surface processes and their role on the hydrological cycle. |
Global Warming Research Program |
| From this summer to fall, many researchers from our programs participated in various study meetings. Active discussions were made about important topics on global warming, such as typhoon, Baiu, winter snow, and cloud feedback effect. In addition, CFC simulation had been performed using a global ocean eddy-resolving model, which is very unique in the world. As a result, it became possible to study absorption process of anthropogenic CO2 in the western boundary current region and coastal region, that had been unable to represent well before. In the paleoclimate study, for Quaternary in Cenozonic era, the presentation was made that an advanced atmosphere-ocean-ice sheet coupled model, which could simulate super long period numerical integrations of hundred thousand years was developed and reconstruction of climate conditions in the Last Glacier Maximum was attempted. In addition, the cause of the glacial termination was discussed. For Tertiary in Cenozonic era, result of the sensitivity experiment on the climate model about opening and closing of the Panama Isthmus was presented. From this experiment, it was found out for the first time that when the Panama Isthmus is open, deep-water formation region is shifted from the North Atlantic to the North Pacific, and the thermohaline circulation became active in the North Pacific, and became inactive in North Atlantic. Those research outputs will be expected to make contribution for the further development of climate models and to increase accuracy on global warming projections. |
Atmospheric Composition Research Program |
| One of the activities in Atmospheric Composition Data Analysis Group is to study the changes in ozone variabilities (seasonal as well as long-term) over three continents, i.e. Europe, North America and Asia, which would help in estimating the influences of regional pollution and intercontinental transport. Recent numerical simulations suggest that ozone level in the Far East Asia is determined by regional scale photochemical buildup superimposed to the "northern-hemispheric background" that is controlled by the precursor emissions in Europe, North America and Asia itself. In this regard, it becomes necessary to formulate a suitable and versatile technique to analyze observational data. The residence times and sectoral classifications based analysis of ozone data shows that ozone, which is produced within European boundary layer decreases sharply after the year 1990. This is consistent with the change in NOx emissions over Europe. However, almost no change in ozone abundance in European lower troposphere is due to intercontinental transport of precursors from U.S.A. Large contribution of Chinese outflow has been observed in the ozone abundances over Japan in late spring/summer in the boundary layer and lower troposphere. Significant contribution of European outflow is also observed over Japan throughout the year. These observational proofs of long-range transport have important implications on deciding the background ozone levels and air-quality standards over a particular continent. |
Ecosystem Change Research Program |
 Report
of the Decennial Anniversary Workshop of Takayama site by Akihiko
Ito.From 21 and 22 October, I participated in the Decennial Anniversary Workshop held in Takayama-city, Gifu. The theme of the workshop was carbon budget of forest ecosystem. Since forest carbon budget has been considered as one of the significant elements of the Kyoto Protocol, it is widely recognized that understanding carbon cycle is very important in global environmental issues. At the site in the vicinity of the workshop place, forest carbon budget has been monitored for almost 10 years by the research groups of Gifu University and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. Since such a long-term measurement is very difficult, only few data is available to examine ecosystem model results. Yet since very valuable long-term data is available at Takayama site, I could develop a model to simulate carbon budget with a substantial reliability. As a result, my presentation had a favorable feedback from field researchers at the site. After the workshop, almost all participants visited Takayama site to continue further discussions, and to enjoy its beauty. The site of 1420 meter latitude, was already filled with autumn tints. |
Integrated Modeling Research Program |
| Annual meeting of the GAIM taskforce was held with more than 20 participants from various nations on October 26-29, 2003 in Cambridge, UK. GAIM stands for Global Analysis, Interpretation and Modelling and is a core project of the International Geosphere Biosphere Program (IGBP). From FRSGC, Ayako Abe-Ouchi of Global Warming Research Program, and Michio Kawamiya of Integrated Modeling Research Program attended the meeting. The discussion put emphases on the role that IGBP/GAIM could play in the partnership among current international research projects on global change including IGBP, and modeling human activities for incorporation into earth system models. Some may consider that the second topic above, in particular, is a dubious one, but it will be necessary in the future to deal with this sort of issues with a well-balanced manner, since the 4th assessment report of IPCC is also expected to stress the importance of cross-cutting researches among its three working groups. It was proposed that the next meeting would be held in Japan, which could provide an excellent opportunity to present contributions from Japan to international projects on global change. |
International Pacific Research Center |
| The cooperation between the IPRC and the Earth Simulator Center
(ESC) is advancing. Kevin Hamilton visited ESC in early summer, and
Wataru Ohfuchi and Yoshiyuki Takashashi, in turn, visited IPRC, to
collaborate on projects analyzing outputs of Atmospheric Model for
the Earth Simulator. Now the Asia-Pacific Data-Research Center is
transferring Earth Simulator files and making them accessible to researchers
on its servers. In October, the IPRC also welcomed postdoctoral fellows Ryo Furue from University of Tokyo, who will study the dynamics equatorial subsurface currents, and Markus Stowasser from Universität Karlsruhe, who will study climate sensitivities in different Global Climate Models. Recent studies at the IPRC have found among other things the following: The northeast monsoon significantly affects the North Equatorial Current transports into the Kuroshio and the Mindanao Current; the Indian Ocean Dipole is related to global climate effects; satellite images show an equatorial-to-off equatorial transition of wave perturbations and subsequent typhoon formation in the cyclonic vorticity region of the off-equatorial synoptic wave train. The Scientific Advisory Committee of the IPRC met in October to review IPRC scientific activities. November 3-7, the IPRC hosted two workshops: The "Climate System Observational and Prediction Experiment" and "CLIVAR Working Group on Seasonal-to-Interannual Prediction." |
International Arctic Research Center |
| Report of the CAMP-FRSGC Collaborative Workshops Two workshops were held at the Yokohama Institute for Earth Science on June 10 and November 5 of 2003 to discuss the collaboration between the CAMP (Climate of Arctic: Modeling and Processes, sponsored by NSF) and FRSGC. The first workshop was held on June 10, 2003 in order to identify possible collaborative projects and coordination mechanisms among various institutions. A particular focus of the workshop was collaboration on projects that make use of the Earth Simulator Center. The second workshop was held on November 5. The particular focus was on examining the progress in the Arctic processes using global model simulations. The participants made some important recommendations how to improve and digest the modeling of the Arctic processes, such as the Atlantic Layer and dense water formation. Collaboration between IARC and FSGRC will continue with the ultimate goal being the use of a coupled model to address the role of ice/ocean anomalies in decadal-scale oscillation of the high-latitude atmosphere-ocean system. |