What is the VL?
“The virtual laboratory (VL) for diagnosing the earth’s climate system” was formed at 2007 by the four university research centers studying climate and environment:
Hydrospheric Atmospheric Research Center (HyARC), Nagoya University
Center for Climate System Research (CCSR), University of Tokyo
Center for Environmental Remote Sensing (CEReS), Chiba University
Center for Atmospheric and Oceanic Studies (CAOS), Tohoku University
According to the research resources and characteristics, the centers forming the VL share research and education, and collaborate in addressing a diagnosis of the earth’s climate system being under great stress such as global warming. Each center supplies data associated with greenhouse gases, microphysical quantities of aerosol and cloud, vegetation indexes, and structures of cloud and precipitation systems to each other. Then, the VL establishes analysis systems of the data using regional and global models, and ultimately improves modeling performances of global warming and water circulations. In addition, the VL develops young researchers through on-the-job training. A synergy effect generated by the interuniversity cooperation is expected to promote the establishment of methods for the diagnosis of the climate system. Using these methods, the VL addresses to solve important issues such as global warming phenomena and contributes to the Japanese top priority tasks such as the global warming initiative, the water cycle initiative, and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).
HyARC set up “Atmospheric Research Promotion Team (VL Promotion Team)” and mainly studies water budget associated with cloud and precipitation. We are developing an observation and analysis system for water budget using Cloud Resolving Storm Simulator (CReSS) and two HyARC polarimetric radars. Comparing observation data of cloud and precipitation with data assimilation results and climate model outputs, we aim to establish methods for a diagnosis of the climate system.