Unique Japan-US-Hawaii Partnership Leads the Study of Asia-Pacific Climate

Introduction and History

Asia and the Pacific region are home to over half the world’s people, all of whom are affected by variations in the climate system on a range of time scales from intraseasonal to centennial and longer. The region also includes many of the world’s inhabitants who are most vulnerable to severe impacts by long-term manmade climate change. The climate system is extremely complicated and scientific challenges in understanding and projecting regional climate changes are daunting. Fortunately the two nations with the most world’s most sophisticated scientific capabilities, Japan and the US, face each other across the Pacific Ocean. In the final years of the 20^th century, visionary government leaders realized the advantages of combining the resources of the science communities in these two nations for the investigation of urgent climate questions for the region. Climate research was added to the Japan-US Common Agenda for Cooperation in Global Perspective in 1997. The vision of the national leadership was matched by that of working scientists and science managers in each country who strived successfully to establish the International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) as a Japan-US partnership at the University of Hawaii (UH). Initial operation of the IPRC began in October 1997.

The IPRC’s official mission is
To provide an international research environment dedicated to improving mankind’s understanding of the nature and predictability of climate variability and change in the Asia-Pacific sector, and to developing innovative ways to utilize knowledge gained for the benefit of society.

IPRC scientists conduct modeling and diagnostic studies to document climate variations and understand their causes, whether the causes are purely natural or have a manmade component. Through advances in basic research IPRC, supports the ultimate practical goal of improving environmental prediction for the Asia-Pacific region. One focus of IPRC investigations is understanding key phenomena rooted in the tropics, such as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation of the ocean-atmosphere system, monsoon circulations, interannual variability in the Indian Ocean region, intraseasonal oscillations of the tropical atmosphere, and tropical cyclones. Other examples of important issues for IPRC study include the nature of decadal variability in the extratropical North Pacific Ocean, the dynamics of the very strong Kuroshio and Oyashio ocean currents in the western North Pacific and the role of marginal seas in the climate system. Concerns about human induced climate change are addressed through modeling studies of past climate and through assessment of model predictions for future trends in climate. IPRC’s strength in modeling and diagnosing climate variability on various timescales fosters a particular interest in understanding how longer period climate trends may affect higher-frequency variability, including the occurrence of extreme events.
The Japan connection continues through longstanding and extensive collaborations with colleagues at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC). In a unique arrangement, the University of Hawaii shares the governance of the IPRC with JAMSTEC and US Federal science agencies. Research funding for IPRC research activities is also provided by the major US Federal science agencies such as NOAA, NASA and the National Science Foundation, among others.

A Milestone for the IPRC

Picture 1. IPRC has hosted many important international climate science meetings. Here is a photo from March 2012 showing part of the attentive audience at the world’s first workshop devoted to analysis of the results of the global computer models being run at major climate centers worldwide to inform the upcoming 5^th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The IPRC recently celebrated its 15^th anniversary and has developed into a powerhouse for climate modeling and diagnostics research, education and service in the Pacific. Ten tenured UH faculty are members of IPRC and about 50 additional research scientists, postdoctoral fellows and scientific and administrative support staff are employed. IPRC scientists have published almost 1000 refereed scientific papers. The IPRC has contributed significantly to the education and professional development of over 100 young scientists mainly from Japan and other Asian nations who have come as graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, researchers, other scientific employees or long-term visitors. The IPRC “alumni?Eare now populating the universities and research institutes of Asia, the US and elsewhere in the world. As intended by IPRC’s founders and our major sponsors, IPRC has become a “crossroads of the Pacific?Ein climate science by serving as the temporary home of a diverse international group of scientists (graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, employees, visitors) and by organizing and hosting numerous international meetings that have brought thousands of researchers to Hawaii for scientific exchanges (Picture 1).

Science Workforce Development for Japan

The special connection with Japan has meant that many young Japanese climate scientists have spent a formative period in their careers at IPRC. There are now 24 of these “IPRC alumni?Eoriginally from Japan. 21 of these scientists are now in research and teaching careers back in Japan, while 3 have continued postdoctoral research at other universities in the US. Remarkably, ten researchers now employed by JAMSTEC itself have come from the IPRC.
Recently the young Japanese scientists at IPRC have established an impressive record in winning important awards for their research achievements. In particular, IPRC researchers have won the Meteorological Society of Japan’s Yamamoto-Syono award (for outstanding research achievements by an atmospheric scientist under 36 years of age) in 2010, 2011 and 2012, and the Oceanographic Society of Japan’s Okada Prize (for outstanding contributions to oceanography by a young member of the society) in 2009 and 2013. This recognition showing that top young Japanese researchers thrive at IPRC is extremely gratifying for us and for our JAMSTEC partners!

Capitalizing on Major Science Investments

The IPRC itself does not have facilities of its own for major observational field work or extensive computational experiments. IPRC scientists have found a very useful role in helping interpret results from observational programs and from large computational efforts by collaborating organizations. This has been particularly true of IPRC collaborations with JAMSTEC - which is blessed with world-class facilities for many aspects of observational and computational earth and marine science. The expertise of IPRC collaborators in diagnostic analysis of the climate system has helped JAMSTEC fully capitalize on its major investments in areas such as high-resolution global computer modeling, ocean sediment coring, oceanographic cruises and participation in international field campaigns.

Modeling the Driftage from the Great Tohoku Tsunami

IPRC’s expertise in modeling the ocean circulation in the Pacific as well as our close connections with Japan have been evident in the aftermath of the great Tohoku tsunami of March 2011. One important issue has been the fate of several million tons of material washed from the shoreline into the ocean by the tsunami. Detailed observations of the floating component of this material (referred to here as ”driftage?E soon became impossible and we have had to rely on a combination of numerical modeling and individual anecdotal reports of sightings in the ocean and on shorelines. IPRC has taken the lead in tracking the debris using our own unique high-resolution global ocean surface current analysis (Picture 2). IPRC’s Dr. Nikolai Maximenko has led this effort and he was able to correctly anticipate the first observations of tsunami driftage on the West Coast of North America and - since the late fall of 2012 - on Hawaii’s shores. The IPRC effort has been well publicized in the news media, and has played an important role in ensuring that the responsible government officials, as well as the public at large, have a realistic picture of the threat that the driftage poses. This was true in Japan as well. Rather remarkably, for a period during 2011 the web page of the Japanese Prime Minister directed Japanese citizens concerned about the tsunami driftage issue to the IPRC web page for more information.

Conclusion

The IPRC is now an important and widely-known international center for climate science. In an ever more globalized scientific community the IPRC has established a unique role as a leader in establishing deep and long-lasting international research collaborations focusing on issues with practical importance for the people of the entire Asia-Pacific region.

Picture 2. The IPRC model simulation of the dispersal of the driftage washed into the ocean by the March 11, 2011 tsunami. Results plotted for selected dates over the period since the tsunami. The colors indicate the “windage?E?Ered for light objects sticking out of the water that are affected strongly by the wind and purple for dense objects that are almost entirely submerged as they drift.