Meteorology and Glaciology Group
As the heat sink on the Earth, the polar regions play an important role for the regional and/or global circulations of energy, water, materials and so on, and also give big influence on global climate and environments. Most part of freshwater on the Eath occurs in polar regions, especially more than 90% in Antarctic. Ice sheet and glaciers in Antarctica and the Arctic, originating from freshwater, has a significant influence both on the hydrological cycle and on the sea level changes, as the cryosphere consisting of snow and ice. Sea ice surrounding the Antarctica and covering the Arctic Sea has a significant effect on the exchange of water and heat between the ocean and the atmosphere, through the fluctuation of the covering area. Sea ice, separating the ocean and atmosphere, contributes the formation of bottom water as well as the global ocean circulation. The atmosphere of the polar regions, being characterized by extremely low temperatures in the winter and development of the strong polar vortex, carries out the atmospheric exchanges of heat and materials occurring between the polar regions and the mid and low latitudes, as well as oceans.
The group supports the activities of the reaserch and education on related topics for the fields of the atmosphere, ice sheets, sea ice, and oceans of the polar regions. The group also arranges and support the cooperative research and other projects, as well as offering the chance for scientific information, organizing the symposium and meetings.
