Research

Macroscale and microphysical properties of clouds from satellite remote sensing ( detail )

Clouds are considered to be one of the largest source of uncertainty in future climate prediction of the Earth’s climate system through their effects on the radiation budget and water cycle. In recent years, global observations of cloud vertical profiles have become available from space-borne active sensors, such as millimeter-wavelength Cloud Radar and Lidar. Our group develops our own retrieval algorithms to analyze these satellite data, as well as ground-base and ship-borne active sensor data. Cloud macroscale and microphysical properties are analyzed globally. These new observations and analysis refine our understanding of the nature of clouds and their roles in the climate system.These findings are intensively used to quantitatively understand cloud-feedback mechanism and to evaluate their representation in General Circulation Models. We also play an active role in international satellite experiments, including Japanese-European Satellite Mission EarthCARE.

Radiative properties of aerosols from lidar ( detail )

Space-borne lidar data are used to investigate the global distribution.and physical and chemical properties of natural and anthropogenic aerosols. The retrieval results are used to investigate aerosols and their radiative properties, cloud-aerosol interaction such as the analyses of their impact on cloud formation and precipitation efficiency as well as the effect of aerosols on the Earth’s Radiation Budget.

Atmosphere - ocean interaction ( detail )

Meteorological impacts of oceanic mesoscale eddies over marginal seas in the East Asia are investigated, together with ocean science groups. We demonstrated that oceanic processes in the marginal sea are important in the East Asian atmospheric environmental change. The meteorological application of assimilation data obtained from an eddy-resolving ocean model elucidated impacts of oceanic mesoscale eddies on cold-air outbreak and extratropical cyclones over the Japan Sea. In particular, the SST distributions of mesoscale cold tongue and warm cores affect the precipitation in the coastal area of the Japan Islands. Our results indicate the importance of mesoscale oceanic processes in advanced weather forecast around the cloud-covered sea areas, and contributed to understanding atmosphere-ocean interaction processes at mid latitudes. Our research field is extended from the East Asia marginal sea areas to the global atmosphere, and we continue to further investigate the atmosphere-ocean interaction processes in local and global areas.

Cloud-covered planet ( detail )

We are developing atmospheric general circulation model of cloud-covered terrestrial planets, such as Venus. Based on detailed spectral analysis of the simulated general circulation and waves, we are investigating dynamics of Venus' superrotation. Parametric experiments using the GCM elucidate that fairly weak heating rate below optically thick cloud significantly influences the formations of superrotation and its multiple equilibrium states on the slowly rotating planet. Furthermore, we are examining the dynamical roles of various atmospheric and astronomical parameters. Such an application of Earth's meteorology to planetary sciences and astronomy contributes to theoretically understanding recent observation of planetary atmosphere. Now, we join an international project of inter-comparison among Venus general circulation models. These researches will be conducted as an integrated work of Earth's meteorology and planetary sciences.