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Report of the conference by Dr. Honda
I attended the Bjerknes Centenary 2004 "Climate Change
in High Latitudes" held at Bergen, Norway from 1 to 3,
September, 2004. About 300 people, mostly from Europe, attended
this conference to present and discuss their latest high-latitude
climate studies focusing on the North Atlantic. The main themes
of this conference were vertical circulation, carbon circulation,
and climate changes in the North Atlantic; and reproduction
of palaeoclimate by using high-resolution models, the main
research projects of Bjerknes Center for Climate Research,
the host of this conference. Many participants made presentations
on their own research projects, which was conducted mainly
in poster session style. The Center was so overcrowded since
number of participants registered for this conference was
more than expected. |
| Through this conference, keen discussions
were exchanged. Many FRCGC researchers attended the
conference, including Drs. Honda (author) and Takaya
from our program. Honda and Takaya made their presentations
on studies on climate changes in mid-latitudes regions
such as the North Pacific and the Eurasia respectively,
while most other presentations were about the climate
changes in the North Atlantic regions. In the academic
tour of a glacier observation, the participants had
detailed explanations about mechanisms of glacier fluctuation,
and relationship between the fluctuation and recent
global warming, etc. Looking at the decreasing glacier,
I could get a real feeling of global warming effect. |
Tour participants heading for the
glacier as if they were pulled in.
(photograph by Dr. Yoshihiro
Tachibana, IORGC)
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Report of meetings by Dr. Kuba
I stayed at Humburg, Germany for 1 week from 11 July to attend
the International Cloud Modeling Workshop 2004. The main purpose
of this workshop was to verify models by using data from large-scale
observations. At Working Group Meetings, as well as at Plenary
Sessions, I was able to have a cooperation from the observation
team. After the workshop, I moved to Bologna, Italy to attend
the International Conference on Clouds and Precipitation (ICCP2004).
The conference was very fulfilling because subjects discussed
during the term (1 week) were all related to Cloud Physics.
I have worked on determining initial cloud drop size distribution
of microphysical model with bin method using the parcel model
with particle method in Lagrangian framework form cloud condensation
nuclei. However, it is difficult to introduce a parcel model
and bin model together into a 3-D nonhydrostatic model. Thus
I developed parameterization for determining the initial cloud
drop size distribution to introduce at the conference. During
discussion among participants, I realized that many researchers
had the same problem, and felt sense of solidarity.
Report of a Symposium by Dr. Iwabuchi
I attended the International Radiation Symposium (IRS) 2004
held in Pusan, South Korea for 1 week from 23 August. In this
largest international symposium related to Atmospheric Radiation,
recent issues in this field were discussed thoroughly. The
most impressive presentation was about the study on the regional
distribution of radiation balance that is changed by introducing
the sub-grid-scale effect of cloud radiation into a global
atmospheric circulation. This effect of cloud radiation may
also affect other distributions such as precipitation. I then
felt the need of introducing this effect into climate models
in Japan. Meanwhile, I presented the study on 3-D radiation
transfer in atmosphere that includes cloud. Thanks to getting
valuable comments from many researchers, I was able to spend
fulfilling time in this conference.
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| Two scientists, Dr. Hitoshi Irie and Dr. Donald
Lucas, have joined the Atmospheric Composition Research Program
this year. Before this March, Dr. Hitoshi Irie was working at
National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) to address
the issue on the formation process of polar stratospheric clouds,
which play a central role in the Arctic ozone depletion, by
using satellite data (ADEOS/ILAS) and a cloud microphysics model. |
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From these
experiences, Dr. Irie would like to analyze satellite
data at FRCGC to investigate temporal/spatial variations
of atmospheric composition and to contribute to solving
global environment issues. Dr. Donald Lucas joined our
program in May. Dr. Lucas was previously at MIT, where
he used a variety of computer models to study the atmospheric
chemistry of dimethylsulfide, an important biogenic
sulfur compound. At the FRCGC, Dr. Lucas plans to incorporate
a size-resolved description of aerosols into a global
3D chemistry-climate model, which he will then use to
quantify the production and fate of secondary aerosols
in the troposphere.
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Introduction of Dr. Hideki
Kobayashi, who joined the Ecosystem Change Research Program
in April 2004
I received doctor's degree in March, 2004. I majored in
Material Science in Physics Department at the university,
and then studied monitoring methods for land vegetation
by using remote sensing in an engineering laboratory of
the graduated school. Taking an opportunity to study in
a program on ecosystem, I now trying to extent my knowledge.
Smoke generated by forest fires in Southeast Asia decreases
the amount of photosynthetically available solar radiation
and affects the net primary production (NPP) of the plants.
In my doctor's course, I evaluated these issues over Southeast
Asia using satellite data. Air pollution of East Asia
and Southeast Asia is especially serious compared with
other regions. Therefore, in the long view, variation
of solar radiation environment caused by the air pollution
is likely to affect the amount of carbon assimilation
of plants. In Ecosystem Change Research Program, I plan
to conduct a research on the relationship between the
variation of solar radiation and the amount of carbon
absorption of plants in whole Asia with Dr. Dennis Dye,
the group leader of this program. |
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Report of the Symposium by Dr. Tsushima
I attended International Radiation Symposium (IRS) held in
Pusan, South Korea from 23 to 28 August, 2004, and made a
poster presentation. In this symposium, specialists in various
fields of Radiation meet once every 4 years. During the poster
session, Dr. Wielicki, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA), approached to me and said, "I am going to analyze
the same annual variation by using CERES data." I replied
willingly, "I want to know if we get the same result
with the new data or not. if you conduct the analysis, please
tell me the result." At the night banquet, Dr. Ramaswamy,
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) said to me, "Have
you got any advances in analysis of K-1 model of low- and
high-sensibility versions?" Indeed, the increased amounts
of earth's temperature caused by doubled CO2 that were calculated
in models studies at other laboratories are very close; 2.9
degrees in GFDL's model and 2.7degrees in NCAR's model. However,
both models showed differences in cloud behavior; lower cloud
increases in GFDL's model, but decreases in NCAR's model.
There is a strong possibility that the cause of the difference
in cloud behavior will be depended on used models, even though
both climate resolutions are similar. It is very interesting
theme to study the contributions of short-wavelength and long-wavelength
radiation to the climate sensitivity as the first stage, and
to compare and analyze the cloud feedback mechanisms as the
second stage. If the difference of cloud response in warmed
models can be related to the difference of cloud distributions
and feedback in the models that show present climate, it will
be possible to get a clue to identify the causes of global
warming resolution's indeterminacy. I am very much looking
forward to future studies.
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We would like to introduce recent activities
of the Next-Generation Model Development Group.
The Atmospheric Modeling subgroup develops a nonhydrostatic
and regular icosahedral grid model called NICAM. NICAM, which
was installed cloud physical processes and radiation processes
already, is scheduled for aqua-planet experiments at a resolution
of about 3.5km horizontal grid. The group's goal of this fiscal
year is to install an aerosol model to perform experiments
such as AMIP-like ones and climate sensibility ones. This
group also works on examining non-negative advection, and
on examining and improving physical processes (convection
parameterization, cloud physical processes, and mixed-layer
schemes) on a regular icosahedral grid. The Ocean Modeling
subgroup studies the roles of mesoscale eddies, which fill
the ocean and rang from several km to several 10 km, in climate
system. To identify the mesoscale eddies, it is necessary
to cover the whole globe with a fine grid. Therefore, this
group works on developing a new mathematically efficient ocean
model by using a cubic grid. Now, this group conducts test
runs at relatively low-resolution for preparation of future
high-resolution climate calculation. Moreover, in cooperation
with Center for Climate System Research, University of Tokyo,
this group develops local models of the Southern Oceans and
the Labrador Sea, where the mesoscale eddies play important
roles, to study mesoscale eddies' roles in these areas.
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