The Maritime Continent (MC) is one of the heaviest precipitation areas in the tropics and the world, and it is characterized by frequent occurrence of extreme weather such as strong winds and heavy precipitation associated with deep convection, squall lines and tropical cyclones,or long dry spells. Such extreme weather events sometimes cause meteorological disasters, including gusty wind, flash flood,flood, and landslide, or drought and haze. In these years, there is also concern about the increase of the occurrence frequency of such extreme weather events in association with global warming.It would be important to promote basic science on tropical atmospheric science (TAS) and to apply the newest scientific outcome for society to prevent and mitigate the meteorological disasters. International collaborations in research and education are also important for the promotion of TAS and its application for society by forming a network of scientists and fostering a new generation of scientists.
In the JSPS core-to-core program (Type B: Asia-Africa Science Platforms) “International Research Collaborations and Networking on Extreme Weather in Changing Climate in the Maritime Continent” for FY2015-2017, we will form an international network in research and education on TAS. The core institute of the program is Kyoto University (Japan) with three counterpart institutes in Southeast Asia, Bandung Institute of Technology (Indonesia), Hanoi University of Science (Vietnam),and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), together with major scientists in Asia and Oceania as well as in Africa, America,and Europe. The international activities under the program will have a leading role in the planning and implementation of the international research collaborations on “Years of Maritime Continent (YMC)” planned for 2017-2019. Those are also linked to the capacity development in Asia-Pacific of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) /Stratosphere-troposphere Processes And their Role in Climate (SPARC) project.
During the three-year period of the JSPS core-to-core program, we will have a series of International Workshop (IWS) and SEASTAS, with a main subject of “drought”, “flood”, or “haze” in each year, which will be held in Bandung, Hanoi, or Singapore, respectively.This is the announcement of the first IWS and SEASTAS held in Bandung, 5(Tue) – 8(Fri) in January, 2016. Please apply for the meetings following the call for papers and participation as included below. Total number of the participants will be about 50 due to the space of lecture room. We look forward to meeting you in Bandung.
Shigeo Yoden (Kyoto University, Japan)
Tri Wahyu Hadi (Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia)
Tien TanTran (Hanoi University of Science, Vietnam)
Tieh-YongKoh (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
