Greetings from the Director of CCSR
The Center for Climate System Research (CCSR) was established in 1991 as a university cooperative research center to perform climate system studies through climate modeling, and the second-term organization started in 2002. I feel the fourteen years since the first establishment of CCSR has passed so quickly. During this period, the CCSR atmospheric general circulation model and ocean general circulation model were born. Based on these models, the current CCSR/NIES/FRCGC-MIROC climate model has been constructed and used in various climate simulations. At the same time, a series of model components have been produced through collaboration among faculties and students, such as the MSTRN radiation code, SPRINTARS aerosol chemical transport model, CHASER gas chemical transport model, COCO ocean-sea ice model, and ICIES ice sheet dynamics model. These models make it possible to use model simulations of various phenomena in our daily research activities, including climate and the environmental effects of human activities. Data analysis using climate data and observations from satellites, such as MIDORI-II and TRMM, have been also presented by CCSR. Over the past fourteen years climate modeling research has advanced and matured, largely as a result of interdisciplinary achievements that are possible within the unique ¡ÈMelting pod of knowledge¡É that characterizes the university.
Today, the importance of climate modeling research continues to increase, as major international, climate-related initiatives begin, such as the UNFCCC/Kyoto Protocol and the UNEP/Atmospheric Brown Cloud (ABC) project, and with the approaching publication of the fourth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The increased focus on climate issues is reinforced by the growing attention from the public which has a strong interest in climate and related environmental issues. The Earth Simulator also provides a new capabilities and opportunities for climate system modeling. Significant results from global warming simulation have been achieved in the RR2002 Project by implementing the model heritage of CCSR on the Earth Simulator. Similarly, important new results from paleoclimate simulation are beginning to be generated through the COE 21st Project. This situation tells us that the volume and quality of CCSR-related research activities on climate and the environment have increased greatly in comparison to the first term. We are now in a period of major growth in climate modeling research.
I feel, however, even such an exciting period may be regarded as the only dawn of an emerging era that will bring even greater advances in the climate modeling research. Along with the large-scale super computer development, model sophistication and reliability will increase even more rapidly in near future. There are possibilities for major new research achievements, such as improved global warming and climate change modeling, modeling of meso-scale weather and urban climate, refined modeling of cloud and chemical processes, paleoclimate, extraterrestrial planetary climate modeling, and analysis of data from new satellite sensors and ground-based measurements. The new administration¡Çs restructuring of the university, which occurred in 2004, has also brought about a change in the relation between CCSR and the community. We are encouraged to increase our interaction with other research organizations, the general public, and the private sector as we pursue further improvements in model development and applications. As we enter this mature stage of climate research at our new home on the new Kashiwa campus, I strongly expect that groundbreaking new research activities will be generated by CCSR through collaboration among faculties, students, and other individuals and organizations.
March 2005
Professor Teruyuki Nakajima, Director
Center for Climate System Research
University of Tokyo
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