Marine Ecosystems Research Department - jamstec japan agency ...

JAMSTEC 2002 Annual Report
Frontier Research System for Global Change
flict", "water and food shortage", "unsanitary life conditions
due to water pollution", and "danger of flooding".
In the Third Forum, discussions were aimed at
creating concrete actions to solve the issues as a starting
point for the actions. FRSGC introduced our activities
in the NASDA booth, located in the exhibition
booth of Kyoto International Conference Hall.
5. Awards
Many FRSGC participants received awards from
various societies and associations. To name a few, Dr.
Shang-Ping Xie, a researcher of International Pacific
Research Center (IPRC), received the Meteorological
Society of Japan (MSJ) Society Award. The Society
Award recognizes his contributions to the understanding
of ocean-atmosphere interaction that shapes the
climate and its variability. Dr. Yasunari, Director of
Hydrological Cycle Research Program and Dr.
Yamasaki, sub-group leader of the same program,
both received MSJ's Fujiwara Award. Dr. Yasunari's
recognized achievement was under "promotion of
Asian Monsoon research, based on GAME Projects".
Dr. Yamasaki's work on "numerical experimental
research on typhoons and tropical disturbances" was
recognized. In addition, Dr. Akimoto, Director of
Atmospheric Composition Research Program received
the Haagen-smit Award from the Atmospheric
Environment journal, for his article, "Anthropogenic
Emissions of SO and NO x in Asia: Emission
Inventories." Dr. Dye, group leader of Ecosystem
Change Research Program was selected to receive a
Takeda Techno-Entrepreneurship Award. His research
project is designed to develop an improve satellitebased
methodology to account for the solar radiation
available for photosynthesis by global vegetation.
Research Program
1. Climate Variations Research Program
The aim of this program is to enhance process studies
on various phenomena in the ocean-atmosphere
coupled system on seasonal through interdecadal time
scales. Our goal is to contribute to increasing skills of
climate prediction through deeper understanding of
basic dynamical and thermodynamical processes in
our climate system. Current interests are in modeling
as well as analyzing the tropical/subtropical oceanatmosphere
coupled phenomena including the Indian
Ocean Dipole (IOD), the ocean circulation in mid-latitudes,
and climate signals in the mid-latitude/subpolar
regions. Confirming through our collaboration with
EU scientists that the SINTEX-F model can reproduce
various climate signals, we are ready to start various
prediction experiments on the Earth Simulator (ES).
As in , we have also continued our close collaborations
with scientists of the Earth Simulator Center
(ESC) to develop models for the ES.
a. Model Group
a-. Climate Variability in the Tropics and Mid-latitudes
Our study on IOD has been continued with emphasis
upon its influence on the global climate using coupled
models and stand-alone atmospheric and oceanic general
circulation models (AGCM/OGCM). Under the EU-
Japan collaboration, the SINTEX-F. coupled GCM
has been installed on the ES and upgraded with implementation
of sea-ice processes, explicit free surface and
river runoff. Our preliminary analysis of a -year
integration of that coupled model reveals its promising
skill in reproducing ENSO and IOD events, whose
occurrence tends to be independent either of the phase
of the ENSO cycle (Fig. ) or of the climatological seasonal
variations in the tropical and midlatitude regions.
Using a stand-alone FrAM-. model, we also
investigated the influences of sea-surface temperature
(SST) anomalies associated with IOD and ENSO on
East Asian climate and the tropical atmospheric
circulation. Two pathways have been found through
which East Asian countries are affected by IOD; one
of them is a teleconnection via the western Pacific
and southern China regions, and the other is via the
Mediterranean/Sahara region associated with the monsoon-desert
mechanism.
118