State dependence of climatic instability over the past 720,000 years from Antarctic ice cores and climate modeling

Climatic variabilities on millennial and longer time scales with a bipolar seesaw pattern have been documented in paleoclimatic records, but their frequencies, relationships with mean climatic state, and mechanisms remain unclear. Understanding the processes and sensitivities that underlie these changes will underpin better understanding of the climate system and projections of its future change. We investigate the long-term characteristics of climatic variability using a new ice-core record from Dome Fuji, East Antarctica, combined with an existing long record from the Dome C ice core. Antarctic warming events over the past 720,000 years are most frequent when the Antarctic temperature is slightly below average on orbital time scales, equivalent to an intermediate climate during glacial periods, whereas interglacial and fully glaciated climates are unfavourable for a millennial-scale bipolar seesaw. Numerical experiments using a fully coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model with freshwater hosing in the northern North Atlantic showed that climate becomes most unstable in intermediate glacial conditions associated with large changes in sea ice and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Model sensitivity experiments suggest that the prerequisite for the most frequent climate instability with bipolar seesaw pattern during the late Pleistocene era is associated with reduced atmospheric CO2 concentration via global cooling and sea ice formation in the North Atlantic, in addition to extended Northern Hemisphere ice sheets

Development of the Metadata Database and Analysis Software for upper atmospheric studies by Inter-university Upper atmosphere Global Observation NETwork (IUGONET)

第3回極域科学シンポジウム　横断セッション「中層大気・熱圏」 11月26日（月）、27日（火） 国立極地研究所 ２階ラウン

The Space Physics Environment Data Analysis System (SPEDAS)

With the advent of the Heliophysics/Geospace System Observatory (H/GSO), a complement of multi-spacecraft missions and ground-based observatories to study the space environment, data retrieval, analysis, and visualization of space physics data can be daunting. The Space Physics Environment Data Analysis System (SPEDAS), a grass-roots software development platform (www.spedas.org), is now officially supported by NASA Heliophysics as part of its data environment infrastructure. It serves more than a dozen space missions and ground observatories and can integrate the full complement of past and upcoming space physics missions with minimal resources, following clear, simple, and well-proven guidelines. Free, modular and configurable to the needs of individual missions, it works in both command-line (ideal for experienced users) and Graphical User Interface (GUI) mode (reducing the learning curve for first-time users). Both options have “crib-sheets,” user-command sequences in ASCII format that can facilitate record-and-repeat actions, especially for complex operations and plotting. Crib-sheets enhance scientific interactions, as users can move rapidly and accurately from exchanges of technical information on data processing to efficient discussions regarding data interpretation and science. SPEDAS can readily query and ingest all International Solar Terrestrial Physics (ISTP)-compatible products from the Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF), enabling access to a vast collection of historic and current mission data. The planned incorporation of Heliophysics Application Programmer’s Interface (HAPI) standards will facilitate data ingestion from distributed datasets that adhere to these standards. Although SPEDAS is currently Interactive Data Language (IDL)-based (and interfaces to Java-based tools such as Autoplot), efforts are under-way to expand it further to work with python (first as an interface tool and potentially even receiving an under-the-hood replacement). We review the SPEDAS development history, goals, and current implementation. We explain its “modes of use” with examples geared for users and outline its technical implementation and requirements with software developers in mind. We also describe SPEDAS personnel and software management, interfaces with other organizations, resources and support structure available to the community, and future development plans

Measurement of momentum flux using two meteor radars in Indonesia

Two nearly identical meteor radars were operated at Koto Tabang (0.20° S, 100.32° E), West Sumatra, and Biak (1.17° S, 136.10° E), West Papua, in Indonesia, separated by approximately 4000 km in longitude on the Equator. The zonal and meridional momentum flux, <i>u</i>′<i>w</i>′ and <i>v</i>′<i>w</i>′, where <i>u</i>, <i>v</i>, and <i>w</i> are the eastward, northward, and vertical wind velocity components, respectively, were estimated at 86 to 94 km altitudes using the meteor radar data by applying a method proposed by Hocking (2005). The observed <i>u</i>′<i>w</i>′ at the two sites agreed reasonably well at 86, 90, and 94 km during the observation periods when the data acquisition rate was sufficiently large enough. Variations in <i>v</i>′<i>w</i>′ were consistent between 86, 90, and 94 km altitudes at both sites. The climatological variation in the monthly averaged <i>u</i>′<i>w</i>′ and <i>v</i>′<i>w</i>′ was investigated using the long-term radar data at Koto Tabang from November 2002 to November 2013. The seasonal variations in <i>u</i>′<i>w</i>′ and <i>v</i>′<i>w</i>′ showed a repeatable semiannual and annual cycles, respectively. <i>u</i>′<i>w</i>′ showed eastward values in February–April and July–September and <i>v</i>′<i>w</i>′ was northward in June to August at 90–94 km, both of which were generally anti-phase with the mean zonal and meridional winds, having the same periodicity. Our results suggest the usefulness of the Hocking method