Research Exchange in Sweden
Overseas Fellowship Program Participant:FY2024 Short-Term Program
Asaka Homma (Nagoya University)
As part of the Overseas Fellowship Program, Arctic Challenge for Sustainability II (ArCS II) Project, I stayed at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) from 25th August to 19th September 2024 for a research exchange.

During my stay, I mainly studied a hydrological model called HYPE. HYPE divides a river basin into smaller basins and performs simulations in each of these basins with different calculations depending on land use and soil type. So, it can simulate discharge that are highly consistent with observed data. My research is on how the river water of the Lena River in Russia is formed, so HYPE is very useful in simulating which areas of the basin have higher runoff. In studying the model, I also gained hydrological insights into what runoff mechanisms are present in the soil and in what aspects of the model there is a large uncertainty with the actual situation. I am now considering if I can use the model to further improve my research. During my stay at the institute, I was also given the opportunity to introduce my research at a seminar. Although I was nervous about the question-and-answer session in English for the first time, I received a variety of feedback from many researchers, which was very helpful for my research.
In addition, I accompanied them on field work on the Torne River on the border between Sweden and Finland. The aim of this field work was to observe the river discharge, and the experience of the actual measurement methods led to a deeper understanding of the research methodology. Besides, although the Torne River was a smaller river than the Lena River, which is the area of my research, it was a large river that is not found in Japan. Therefore, it is currently not possible to visit the Lena River, but this field research gave me an image of what the Lena River is like.

Throughout my stay, I had discussions with host researchers almost every day at overseas research institutions and conducted field work while covered in mud in the great outdoors, which contributed to the improvement of my own research and was a very good experience in terms of conducting research abroad.