IPRC NEWS The IPRC 10th Anniversary sea-level rise. In age, the students ranged from kindergarten to high school. They were fascinated by the images displayed The IPRC marked the completion of 10 years of scientific on the Magic Planet, as were their parents, and asked many achievements with a series of events in May 2008. The pre- questions about the animations displayed on this truly magi- vious issue of the IPRC Climate described the special IPRC cal sphere. Annual Symposium held on May 5 and 6 at the East-West A final event in our celebration was an informal review Center. In their invited symposium talks, University of To- workshop on May 16, in which younger IPRC scientists kyo Professor Toshio Yamagata remembered the history and showcased their research. evolution of the IPRC, and University of Maryland Profes- sor Antonio Busalacchi described the scientific accomplish- Bin Wang Elected AMS Fellow! ments of the IPRC over the last 10 years and speculated about IPRC’s future in the international climate research commu- IPRC Team Leader and Professor nity. In the evening of May 5, the IPRC staff held a reception of Meteorology Bin Wang has been and dinner to honor Jay McCreary’s service as IPRC Direc- elected Fellow of the American Me- tor and to mark Professor Yamagata’s 60th birthday. teorological Society (AMS) for his On May 9 the IPRC held an Open House for local school “outstanding contributions to the children and their parents. About 40 homeschooled stu- atmospheric and related oceanic dents and their parents came to watch animations with the and hydrologic sciences during a Magic Planet, a smaller version of the NOAA Science On a substantial period of years.” The Sphere. The Magic Planet demonstrations were conducted by AMS bestows this prestigious, life- AMS Fellow Bin Wang Leon Geschwind, who gives the NOAA Science On a Sphere long title each year on no more than 0.2% of the Society’s demonstrations at Honolulu’s Bishop Museum. In addition world-wide membership. The ceremony will take place at the to the solar system, featuring spacecraft images of the planets AMS Annual Meeting to be held from January 11 to 15, 2009, and their moons, Geschwind showed animations from mod- in Phoenix, Arizona. els of climate-change projections, including one that predicts how much of Waikiki would be under water with a 3-foot IPRC Interim Director Visits JAMSTEC In his new role as IPRC Interim Director, Kevin Hamilton travelled to Japan this summer to meet with several top-level administrators of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC). At Yokosuka Headquarters, he visited with JAMSTEC Executive Director Kiyoshi Suye- hiro and Operating Executive Director Shiro Imawaki. In Yokohama, he enjoyed the opportunity to talk with Frontier Research Center for Global Change (FRCGC) Director-Gen- eral Tatsushi Tokioka and the FRCGC Program Directors Hajime Akimoto, Toshio Yamagata, and Akira Noda about the overall progress of IPRC–JAMSTEC collaborations. Hamilton was also able to discuss JAMSTEC–IPRC relations with key personnel of the JAMSTEC International Affairs From left, Grant Mason, Josiah Gill, and Mary Mason are gazing at the Division including Manager Masakuni Hanada, Deputy Magic Planet. Manager Takero Kasaya, and Shiro Matsugaura. Hamilton International Pacific Research Center 21 Wang and Hamilton Hosted Simulated with a Fine Resolution by Japan’s Meteorological Global Model,” Hamilton discussed the results for the Hawaiian region from Research Institute the pioneering simulations performed at MRI with its TL959 atmospheric Japan’s Meteorological Research Insti- model (see also Hamilton’s article in tute (MRI) in Tsukuba hosted consecu- IPRC Climate vol. 7, no. 2). tive seminars by IPRC’s Bin Wang and Kevin Hamilton on July 9 for scientists IPRC Scientists Active from the MRI and the University of Kevin Hamilton with Wataru Ohfuchi (left) Tsukuba. Wang spoke about his recent in the Climate Research and Takeshi Enomoto (right) at the Earth work on Tibetan Plateau warming and Community Simulator Center. its effect on rainfall in East Asia. Wang’s seminar came in the mid- Interim IPRC Director Kevin Hamilton also enjoyed a discussion of science is- dle of his month-long visit to the MRI, has been appointed to the External Ad- sues with Taroh Matsuno, formerly where he worked with Akio Kitoh and visory Panel of the National Center for Director-General and currently Senior his group in the Climate Research De- Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Earth Scientist at FRCGC. partment analyzing outputs from the and Sun Systems Laboratory (ESSL). While in Japan, Hamilton paid an very high-resolution (20 km) MRI ESSL includes the main scientific divi- extended visit to the Earth Simulator global model outputs to see what fu- sions at NCAR. He has also been ap- Center, where he was hosted by Senior ture changes may occur in the diurnal pointed to the inaugural Editorial Ad- Scientist Wataru Ohfuchi and Scientist cycle and in tropical cyclone activity in visory Board of the Journal of Advances Takeshi Enomoto of the Atmospheric the western North Pacific. in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES), a and Oceanic Simulation Group with In his MRI seminar, “Late 21st new international, electronic, open-ac- whom he is collaborating on the analy- Century Climate Change in Hawai‘i cess scientific journal on environmen- sis of high-resolution AFES global at- tal modeling. For further information, mospheric model results. This work is please visit adv-model-earth-syst.org. part of the JAMSTEC–IPRC Initiative Yuqing Wang has been appointed on Model Development, Diagnosis, to the Scientific Working Group of the and Application Research. He also got VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere- a chance to talk with several members Land Study (VOCALS), a program of of Masaki Satoh’s NICAM (Nonhydro- the CLIVAR World Climate Research static ICosahedral Atmospheric Mod- Programme. The goal of VOCALS is to el) group about other work underway develop and promote scientific activi- at the IPRC on this research theme, in- ties that lead to a better understanding cluding the analysis of NICAM global of the coupled ocean-atmosphere-land atmospheric model results. system in the Southeastern Pacific. For Front from left, Hiroaki Ueda (University of further information on VOCALS, please Tsukuba), Shoji Kusunoki (MRI), Masamichi visit www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/vocals/. Ohba (University of Tsukuba), Tomoshige In- oue (University of Tsukuba); back from left, Bin Wang, Kevin Hamilton, Akio Kitoh (MRI), Ryo Mizuta (AESTO). 22 IPRC Climate, vol. 8, no. 2, 2008 Research Team Investigates An Ecosystem Model Arabian Sea Oxygen for OFES Minimum Zone Yoshikazu Sasai, research scientist at the Frontier Research Center for Global The Arabian Sea oxygen minimum Change, visited the IPRC in Spring zone (ASOMZ) lies at a depth of 200– 2008 for three months. Sasai has imple- 1000 m in the central and eastern Ara- mented and run an ecosystem model bian Sea. As all OMZs, the ASOMZ embedded in OFES. At the IPRC, Sasai is caused by the sinking of surface- From left: Raleigh Hood, Jay McCreary, and worked with IPRC’s Kelvin Richards produced detritus and its consump- P. N. Vinayachandran. on output from the model and in par- tion at depth by bacteria. An unusual ticular, on the impact of the eddying feature of the ASOMZ is that it is not this year, Akio Ishida had studied the Kuroshio on the primary production located in the western Arabian Sea, transport of a tracer from the Gulf of in the area. where surface production is largest, Aden to the Arabian Sea using OFES but in the central and eastern basin. A and found that the transport by eddies possible physical cause for its eastward was much stronger than that by the shift is the presence of oxygenated Red mean currents. Based on this finding, Sea water (RSW) in the western Ara- the next step in the project is to run an bian Sea. A group of scientists consist- eddy-resolving version of LOM for the ing of Jay McCreary, Zuojun Yu, and region. Kelvin Richards at IPRC; Akio Ishida at JAMSTEC; Raleigh Hood at Horn IPRC–Hokkaido University Point Environmental Laboratory; and P. N. Vinayachandran at the Indian Partnership Continues Yoshikazu Sasai and Kelvin Richards discuss- Institute of Science, Bangalore, have ing the link between the eddying flow around formed a research team to investigate The IPRC–Hokkaido University part- the Hawaiian Islands and the patterns of phy- this idea. nership in educating climate scientists toplankton. From July 22 to August 3, Raleigh continues (see last IPRC Climate issue). Hood and P. N. Vinayachandran vis- IPRC’s Kelvin Richards visited Hok- ited the IPRC to work with McCreary kaido University at the invitation of IPRC Climate Research and Yu on including an oxygen com- Professor Youichi Tanimoto. Richards to Help Sustainable Rice partment in the biological compo- gave a series of five lectures over two nent of their 6½-layer, biophysical days, as part of the on-going lecture se- Production Indian-Ocean model (LOM). Prelimi- ries given in English by IPRC scientists nary solutions to the updated model to graduate students of the Division of IPRC’s H. Annamalai is participating showed that (1) subsurface oxygen Earth System Science, Hokkaido Uni- in ClimaRice, a project that is to con- concentrations are largely controlled versity. The well-attended lectures fo- tribute to the development of regional by local processes, namely, the sinking cused on the transport, dispersion, and and national adaptation strategies to rate of detritus and vertical mixing of reaction of tracers in the ocean and sustain rice production and ensure oxygen; and (2) the oxygen flux due atmosphere. food security in a changing climate.