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Director's Message

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published “Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate” in 2019. The report stresses that the ocean and cryosphere are essential for predicting global climate change. As described by the IPCC, the importance of research and observation in both the Antarctic and the Arctic—which has an ice sheet— is growing in the global environmental problems like global warming. The National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR) of the Research Organization of Information and Systems, the core institute for conducting research and observation of the polar regions, is playing an increasingly critical role. The NIPR must conduct research and observations of the polar regions with a global perspective and consistently produce results internationally while also widely educating the public on the importance of such activities. As global warming accelerates, the NIPR functions as a research institute that conducts polar research and observations to predict future changes in the global environment. We will highlight the various changes in the Arctic and Antarctic from past to present on the temporal scale and spatial scales for more accurate predictions about the global environment.

The NIPR is an inter-university research institute established in 1973 to conduct polar observations and comprehensive research. This type of institute boosts the research capabilities of universities around Japan through collaborative domestic and international research. With a research target of global-scale environmental changes focused on the polar region, international cooperation is essential. While conducting collaborative observational research with various countries within a framework of academic organizations under the International Science Council (ISC), including the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), the Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP), and the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR), we pursue world-leading scientific research of the polar regions.

The primary topic for Antarctic observation in the six-year plan (FY2022–2027) of Phase X of the Japanese Antarctic Research Projects is “the future global environment system as inferred through investigating the past and present of the Antarctic,” around which we are engaged in activities such as drilling of the oldest ice core at the Dome station and intensive marine observation with the Antarctic research vessel ”Shirase”. In the Arctic, we are in the midst of the Arctic Challenge for Sustainability II (ArCS II) Project (FY2020–2024) and are discussing further developments and the launching of new research and observation activities for the next project period. As we pursue these observational research projects, we look forward to your support and understanding of the activities of the NIPR in fulfilling its role as Japan’s only research institute conducting comprehensive observational research in the polar regions.

Dr. Yoshifumi NOGI
Director-General, National Institute of Polar Research

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