Principal Investigator of Planned Research
Research Outline
In recent years, the Antarctic region has been witnessing extremes such as minimum sea ice extent, acceleration of glacial ice loss, heavy snowfall, intense atmospheric/marine heat waves, and an abnormal increase in marine primary production, which might be a sign that the earth’s system is approaching tipping points or irreversible climate change. The melting of the Antarctic ice sheet is of particular public concern due to the enormous impact on sea level rise and ecosystems. The cloud and snowfall systems that control snowfall over the ice sheet are affected by both low and mid-latitude atmospheric and oceanic internal variability and warming. In particular, ‘atmospheric rivers’ carrying large amounts of water vapor, heat, and material from the low and mid-latitudes are a major cause of heavy snowfall in the Antarctic region. Exploring spatiotemporal trends in this phenomenon from past decades to the present is a key to unraveling the mechanisms of variability in longer-term atmosphere-ocean-snow/ice-ecosystem interactions. The planned research will synthesize in-situ and satellite observations with numerical models to investigate local-remote interactions and assess the near-term future of the Antarctic climate system from a global perspective.
