Morimoto Takehiro

Sugimoto Shiori

Ueno Kenichi

Tsukuba Repository

〈Research Reports〉 Establishment of CEOP
Tsukuba Reference Site
著者 Ueno Kenichi, Morimoto Takehiro, Sugimoto
Shiori
journal or
publication title
Tsukuba geoenvironmental sciences
volume 4
page range 17-20
year 2008-12-26
URL http://hdl.handle.net/2241/101722
17
Tsukuba Geoenvironmental Sciences, Vol. 4, pp. 17-20, Dec. 26, 2008
Abstract
　Data archive project for Tsukuba Science City was 
initiated under the Coordinated Energy and water cycle 
Observations Project for four years (2007-2010). Five 
institutes and one university contribute to archive the 
hydro-meteorological data in the uniformed format. At 
present, http://www.geoenv.tsukuba.ac.jp/~ceoptsukuba/ 
is the main source for detailed information regarding the 
project and access to the data.
Key words: CEOP, data archive, Tsukuba Science City.
1. Introduction
　In the 1970s, Tsukuba Science City (http://www.info-
tsukuba.org/) was established approximately 60 km 
northeast of Tokyo as a center for advanced research and 
higher education to promote science and technology. 
Several national institutes and university observe hydro-
meteorological parameters in the city for their own 
research purposes, and some of their data are open 
to the public. Because archiving these data would be 
quite beneficial in order to examine the variability of 
the mesoscale parameters in relation to land-surface 
heterogeneity in the city, the data archive project for 
Tsukuba Science City was initiated under the Coordinated 
Energy and water cycle Observations Project (CEOP) in 
2007. The project was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for 
Scientific Research from Japan Society for the Promotion 
of Sciences. CEOP entered the second phase (CEOP2) 
in 2007, updating the reference sites (RSs), the data 
archiving structure, and the science panels.
　CEOP is an international project under under the World 
Climate Research Project (WCRP) Global Energy and 
Water-cycle Experiment (GEWEX) (http://www.ceop.
net/). The first phase of CEOP (CEOP1) was to construct 
an observation and data archival system which could 
contribute to the Global Earth Observation System of 
Systems (GEOSS) to enhance the understanding and 
prediction of continental- to local-scale hydroclimtates 
for hydrologic applications (Koike, 2004). More than 
30 of the RSs were categorized as ground-based in-situ 
observatories (http://monsoon.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ceop2/
data/refsites.html) where multiple satellite data from 
new-generation satellites such as TERRA, AQUA, 
ENVISAT and ADEOS2, as well as model output data 
from numerical weather prediction centers (MOLTS) have 
been intensively archived. Plans are underway to archive 
satellite data and MOLTS data from 10 centers.
　The process of resistrating Tsukuba City as a CEOP-
RS began in 2006, in synchrony with the start of CEOP2. 
The process was called the CEOP Tsukuba Reference Site 
Project (CTRSP). In September 2007, at the first CEOP 
International Planning Meeting at Bali, Indonesia, the 
Tsukuba City sites was officially approved as the first RS 
in Japan. The main objective of the CTRSP is to archive 
meteorological data from multiple national institutes and 
a university located in and around Tsukuba City and to 
handle these data at the CEOP data center by unifying 
formats with site descriptions. In accordance with CEOP 
policy, the data are opened to the public via a newly 
established home page. The CTRSP is to continue for four 
years (2007-2010).
2. Framework of the CEOP Tsukuba project 
　As of August 2008, the following institutes were 
members of the CTRSP; the Meteorological Research 
Institute (MRI), the Terrestrial Environment Research 
Center (TERC) and Mt. Tsukuba Station (MtTSUKUBA) 
of the University of Tsukuba (UT), the National Research 
Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED), 
the National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences 
(NIAES), the National Institute for Environmental Studies 
(NIES), and the Japan Meteorological Agency/ Aerological 
Observatory (JMA/AO). Seven observation stations are 
registered at the site (Table 1). Each organization has 
a station manager who is responsible for original data 
quality checks.  
　Under CEOP1, four types of RS data sets are defined; 
surface meteorological and radiation (sfc), flux (flx), soil 
temperature and soil moisture (stm), and meteorological 
Establishment of CEOP Tsukuba Reference Site
Kenichi UENO*, Takehiro MORIMOTO*, Shiori SUGIMOTO*, Jun ASANUMA**, 
Shigenori HAGINOYA***, Kiyotoshi TAKAHASHI****, Nozomu OKAWARA*****, 
Atsushi SHIMIZU******, Kouji DAIRAKU*******, Masayoshi MANO********, Akira MIYATA********
* Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Univ. 
of Tsukuba
** Terrestrial Environment Research Center, Univ. of Tsukuba
*** Meteorological Research Institute
**** Climate Prediction Division, Japan Meteorological Agency
***** Aerological Observatory, Japan Meteorological Agency
****** National Institute for Environmental Studies
******* National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster 
Prevention
******** National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences
18
K. UENO, T. MORIMOTO, S, SUGIMOTO, J. ASANUMA, S. HAGINOYA, K. TAKAHASHI, N. OKAWARA, A. SHIMIZU, K. DAIRAKU, M. MANO, A. MIYATA
tower (twr). These types are divided into two categories; 
standard data and enhanced or experimental data ( see 
details in http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/ceop/dm/
documents/refdata_report/). The required parameters are 
defined with a format and error flag. The station manager 
determine which parameters to open to the public on a 
non-profit basis. Ancillary data sets, such as sonde or 
lidar data, can be archived with their own format. CEOP 
requests that standard data (Category 1) be freely open to 
the science community after a basic turn-around period 
of six months. The turn-around period is 15 months 
for enhanced or experimental data (Category 2), such 
as flux data or special data obtained through intensive 
observations in remote areas. The CTRSP collects the 
data twice a year, in August and February. The data from 
each station are first send to the UT after the manager 
conducts a data quality check by adding the error flags. 
Metadata which explain the observation conditions and 
data quality are also archived. The UT acts as a data center 
in the CTRSP, reformatting the data into the CEOP format 
and putting them on the home page. CEOP recommends 
30-minuete standard data intervals. The CTRSP data 
center also re-samples the data if the archived data 
interval is less than 30 minuets. Re-sampling methods 
are explained in the metadata. At present, http://www.
geoenv.tsukuba.ac.jp/~ceoptsukuba/ is the main source 
for detailed information regarding the project and access 
to the data. The home page is supported in English and 
Japanese. 
3. Observation stations
　The Tsukuba RS is situated on the Joso Plateau (20-30 
m a.s.l.) and consists of the northeastern Kanto plain (Fig. 
1). The site covers two main zones. The urbanized zone 
stretches north to south and includes public facilities, 
residential areas, and commercial and business areas 
(Tsukuba Science city). The rural area is used for paddy 
fields, dry fields and orchards. Most of the paddy field are 
utilized for rice cultivation, and the dry fields are for turf 
or vegetables. Most of the stations are located in Tsukuba 
Science city, but meteorological measurements may reflect 
the effects of mixtures of surface components surrounding 
the station. CEOP2 project plans to archive satellite data 
in the domain of a 2.5 by 2.5 degree grid with a center 
at 36°06′ 35" N, 140°06′ 00" E , corresponding to the 
location of the TERC.
　Since the Tsukuba Express Railway, which connects 
Tokyo and Tsukuba Science City, started opening in 
August 2005, the urbanized area has expanding. The 
Sakura-gawa and Kokai-gawa riveres run northeast and 
southwest of the site, and the paddy fields are distributed 
mainly along these rivers. Mt. Tsukuba (876 m a.s.l.) 
located about 7 km north of the city center is forested 
primary with beech, tall evergreen oak, and Japanese red 
pine. On calm winter days, the development of a nighttime 
inversion layer over the Kanto Plain causes thermal belts 
along the mountain slopes, which is utilized for habitats 
and fruit plantations. Therefore, the CEOP-Tsukuba 
reference site covers various land use areas and a rapidly 
growing city representing land cover conditions in the 
Kanto Plain of central Japan.
　Each station has its own characteristics. MRI and 
the neighboring JMA/AO are key aerological and 
meteorological observatories which together are referred 
to as the Tateno station. Under the WCRP, the station is 
categorized as a Baseline Surface Radiation Network 
(BSRN) project where sonde and radiation data are 
downloaded from BSRN home page (http://www.bsrn.
awi.de/), and reformatted. Since the late 1970s, the TERC 
which has a 30 m tower has measured the surface flux and 
hydrometeorological parameters in its circular grassland 
field. This facility has been used as a core station in a 
large-scale field campaign (Sugita et al., 1993), and used 
in a study of large-scale surface flux (Hiyama et al., 1995).
In the mid-1990s, measurements of the surface flux of 
carbon dioxide began at this station (Saigusa et al., 1996). 
NIAES-Mase is another flux-measuring point representing 
paddy fields about 7 km west of the city center (http://
ecomdb.niaes.affrc.go.jp/). At the NIAES-Mase site, long-
term greenhouse gas exchange between paddy fields and 
the atmosphere is monitored. The data from the NIAES-
Mase site are also utilized for process studies of gas 
exchange (Han et al., 2007) and gas flux measurement 
technique (Saito et al., 2007; Ono et al., 2008) as well as 
Station name Latitude Longitude Elevation Data set
TERC 36° 06' 35'' N 140° 06' 00'' E 27 m SFC, FLX, TWR
MRI 36° 03' 09'' N 140° 07' 24'' E 25.2 m SFC, FLX, STM
AO/JMA 36° 03' 09'' N 140° 08' 24'' E 25.2 m SFC, Sonde
NIES 36° 03' 04'' N 140° 07' 13'' E 29 m Lidar
NIED 36° 07' 33'' N 140° 05' 24'' E 24 m SFC, STM
NIAES-Mase 36° 03' 14.3'' N 140° 01' 36.9'' E 11 m SFC, STM
MtTSUKUBA 36° 33' 7.2'' N 140° 05' 52.8'' E 868 m SFC
Table 1  List of stations and data sets
19
Establishment of CEOP Tsukuba Reference Site
for collaboration with modelers and remote sensor users 
(Inoue et al., 2008). At the NIED site, which is adjacent 
to a red pine forest, rain and soil moisture are measured in 
order to validate radar observation. Meteorological data 
are collected at the MtTSUKUBA site on Mt. Tsukuba 
located 17 km north from the city center at an altitude 
of 868 m (Hayashi and Research Group for Intramural 
Project(S), 2006). The NIES provides compact Mie Lidar 
data through an automated-dual-wavelength-polarization 
lidar network in the East Asian region. Details of the 
observation are given on the home page.
4. Future perspectives
　Focus of this project is to construct a database of 
mesoscale observations by different national institutes 
funded by their own agencies. Such cross-cutting way 
through different organization is quite unique and 
challengeable. We expect that the data will be utilized for 
hydrometeorological research including the verification 
of satellite estimates and numerical predictions, process 
studies of land-atmospheric interactions, evaluation of 
urbanization, and education and policy-making in the local 
community.
Acknowledgements
　This project has been supported by Grants-in-Aid for 
scientific research by the Japan Society for the Promotion 
of Science, CEOP Tsukuba Database, No. 198052 and No. 
208044.
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Fig. 1 Locations  of observation stations and land use in the Tsukuba RS
The land use is based on the Detailed Digital Information (10 m Grid Land Use ) of the Tokyo 
Metropolitan Area in 1994, Geographical Survey Institute of Japan.
20
K. UENO, T. MORIMOTO, S, SUGIMOTO, J. ASANUMA, S. HAGINOYA, K. TAKAHASHI, N. OKAWARA, A. SHIMIZU, K. DAIRAKU, M. MANO, A. MIYATA
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Received 1 September 2008
Accepted 31 October 2008


〈Research Reports〉 Establishment of CEOP Tsukuba Reference Site

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