University of Hawaii signs new agreement with Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and TechnologyUniversity of Hawaiʻi
International Pacific Research Center
Carolyn Tanaka, (808) 956-8109
External Affairs & University Relations
HONOLULU — The University of Hawaiʻi has signed a new five-year Cooperative Agreement with the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) to support collaborative climate research at the International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) of the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST). The agreement continues a relationship that has provided UH with more than $30 million dollars to support its research efforts.
"Given the critical importance of the issue of climate change, the University of Hawaiʻi is fortunate to have a world-class climate research center in the IPRC," said UH President David McClain. "The successful conclusion of this Cooperative Agreement allows the continuation of the Japan-UH scientific partnership that provides the foundation of IPRC‘s efforts to understand and predict climate change and its effects on Hawaiʻi and elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region."
Established in October 1997, the IPRC was founded to gain greater understanding of the nature and causes of climate variation in the Asia-Pacific region, to determine whether such variations are predictable and to discover how global climate change affects the region. IPRC scientists conduct research mostly by analyzing existing data sets from satellites and other observing systems and by using computer model simulations of the climate system.
With a full-time international scientific staff of over 40, the IPRC researches the effects of the ocean and atmosphere on climate phenomena such as the El Niņo—Southern Oscillation, the monsoon circulations with their dry and wet spells, and storm tracks over the ocean. The IPRC studies the life cycles of tropical cyclones, the causes of year-to-year and decade-to-decade variations in the extra-tropical North Pacific Ocean climate and in the very strong Kuroshio and Oyashio ocean currents.
The IPRC also examines human-induced climate change through modeling studies of past climate and through assessing model predictions of future trends in climate, including the climate change outlook for Hawaiʻi.