Marine Ecosystems Research Department - jamstec japan agency ...

Japan Marine Science and Technology Center
Frontier Research System for Global Change
Fig.25b The Live Access Server (LAS) version 6.0 at the APDRC serves QuikSCAT level 3 wind velocity data from
JPL (left) and allows model product comparison from two different sites, JPL-ECCO adjoint output and
NOAA-GFDL output (right) for fields such as ocean surface temperature.
8. International Arctic Research Center
Atmosphere/Ocean/Ice Physics Group
a. Introduction
The Atmosphere/Ocean/Ice Physics Group was
established in as part of the Frontier Research
System for Global Change (FRSGC) contribution to
IARC at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The
physics group is organized to contribute to the basic
understanding of the modern climate system and climate
change of the Arctic. With regard to climate
change, we adopt the usage of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) _ " any change in
climate over time, whether due to natural variability or
as a result of human activity." Our mandate includes
establishment/participation in multi-disciplinary studies
and leadership of international projects.
Individual research and corporate research projects
within IARC/Frontier are guided by four basic principles:
the scientific question must guide our research;
climate research builds upon a legacy of past studies
and observations; collaborative studies with individuals
and institutions in the international community are
necessary; and all scientists benefit from participation
in field work.
As an aid to organizing our studies, FRSGC suggests
the concept of a triangle with vertices of observations,
theory, and modeling. At present the physics group balances
its human resources as: analyses of observations
(%); theory and processes (%); GCM-type simulations
(%); and field/expedition work (%). Real
understanding of the climate system then comes from
artfully navigating the interior of the triangle.
b. Research
Together with colleagues at the UAF Institute of
Marine Sciences (IMS) and at the Arctic and Antarctic
Research Institute (AARI), we have assembled a year
time series of the pan-Arctic surface air temperature
(see Figure ). This time series clearly captures
the warming of the s, an event spanning years
during which the Arctic warmed by almost ˚C. The
temperature anomaly ˚C
1.0
0.5
0
-0.5
Global
(IPCC report)
Arctic
(Polyakov, et al.)
-1.0
1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000
Fig.26 The instrumental surface air temperature record from pan-
Arctic stations (blue curve) and of globally averaged temperature
(red). The sharp increase of Arctic temperature,
1920 through the 1930s, is referred to as the warming of
the 1930s. The Arctic record is smoothed by a 6-year-filter.
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