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Kawatani Lab
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The lab uses climate models to uncover the links between the stratosphere and the troposphere.
AboutAbout the lab
Treating the atmosphere from the surface to 80 km altitude as one system.
The Kawatani Lab studies atmospheric phenomena from the surface up to an altitude of 80 km from a dynamical perspective.
It focuses in particular on the interactions between the troposphere and the stratosphere and mesosphere above it (the middle atmosphere).
The lab combines numerical simulations with climate models and analysis of model experiment data from around the world, as well as various observational and reanalysis datasets.
It also conducts research on tropospheric phenomena such as the Baiu front and the Pacific High (North Pacific Subtropical High), and on how they will change in the future.
Key terms
- Middle atmosphere
- A term for the stratosphere and mesosphere together, which lie above the troposphere
- Equatorial Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO)
- A phenomenon in which easterly and westerly winds in the equatorial stratosphere alternate on a cycle of about 28 months
- Atmospheric gravity waves
- Waves that propagate through the atmosphere with buoyancy as the restoring force. They carry momentum upward
NewsLab news
A paper with a master's student as first author was published in SOLA
A review summarizing the current state and outlook of middle atmosphere research in Japan was published in Tenki
ResearchResearch themes
The lab views the troposphere and the stratosphere and mesosphere above it as a single system, aiming to understand its structure and variability. It combines numerical simulations with climate models, analysis of model experiment data from around the world, and analysis of observational and reanalysis data.
*Illustrative imageEquatorial Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO)
The QBO is a phenomenon in which stratospheric easterly and westerly winds alternate on a cycle of about 28 months. Changes in its phase alter the winter stratospheric polar vortex, and even affect tropospheric jets and surface pressure patterns.
*Illustrative imageWhat drives the QBO
The QBO is driven when atmospheric waves generated by tropical cumulus convection break at higher altitudes. Small-scale atmospheric gravity waves play an especially large role, and the lab investigated them by reproducing the QBO in high-resolution climate models that can directly resolve the waves.
*Illustrative imageChanges in the QBO under global warming
Climate model experiments showed that when warming strengthens upwelling in the equatorial region, the QBO has more difficulty descending into the lower stratosphere. Sixty years of observational data also show that QBO amplitude around the 70 hPa level has weakened.
*Illustrative imageThe Baiu front and the Pacific High
Experiments that vary the resolution and physical processes of climate models are used to investigate the conditions needed to represent the Baiu front. Analyses of reanalysis data and groups of climate models have also revealed the mean structure and year-to-year variability of the summer Pacific High.
MembersFaculty
- Associate ProfessorYoshio Kawatani
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Helkivad ööpilved Kuresoo kohal” Martin Koitmäe / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Equatorial Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO): “S65-34771 Earth's limb and atmosphere at twilight” NASA / Public domain (cropped)
- What drives the QBO: “Wave clouds and internal waves off Western Australia (MODIS )” Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC / Public domain (cropped)
- Changes in the QBO under global warming: “Earth-limb-sage-iii” NASA / Public domain (cropped)
- The Baiu front and the Pacific High: “Earth from Orbit- Rope Clouds ( )” NOAASatellites / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Tanimoto Lab): “ISS-65 Indian Ocean sunglint” NASA / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Ocean and Climate Physics Lab): “Spring Bloom Colors the Pacific Near Hokkaido” Norman Kuring / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Meteorology Lab): “Northern Japan, especially the island of Hokkaido, is home to some of the snowiest cities in the world (stormy-snowy-winter-for-hokkaido)” Michala Garrison, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Fujiwara Lab): “2020-11 Kerguelen Islands - Weather balloon 05” Antoine Lamielle / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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