Arctic Research Overview
- The Arctic as a research target
- Comparison of the Arctic with the Antarctic
- Utilization of satellite data
- Collaboration between field works and satellite observation
The Arctic as a research target
The Arctic is the high-latitude region around the North Pole including parts of the North America and Eurasia continents, Greenland and other islands as well as the Arctic Ocean. It is generally considered to be the north of the Arctic Circle (66°33´N), which is the limit of the midnight sun in summer. It is also defined as the area where the average monthly temperature of the warmest month is lower than 10°C. We have many more definitions of the Arctic for various disciplines and perspectives.
The Arctic is a vast, inhospitable area but the frontier for scientific researches. There are unique subjects around the Arctic Sea with adjacent seas, tundra and permafrost areas, and magnetic phenomena such as aurora borealis or magnetic storm.
It is also important for prediction of mid-latitude climate to study the Arctic phenomena, because the condition of arctic sea ice significantly affects the climate in Japan and neighboring nations. Previous researches suggest that a future temperature rise over the Arctic would lead cold wave and aridity to the mid-latitude region and threaten human life. Development of Arctic research is an urgent global requirement to prevent global warming.
Besides, many countries have a close relation to the Arctic region. Enhancing mutual cooperation in international arctic research is desirable.
Comparison of the Arctic with the Antarctic
The arctic environment is different from the Antarctic environment in terms of geographic feature, although both of them are located in polar region. The Arctic reflects global change and global warming more sensitively than the other regions.
The composite image of the Arctic
The composite image of the Antarctic
These images of the Arctic (left) and Antarctic (right) were captured in late summer 2003 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) on NASA's earth observing satellite, Terra. Sea depth is shown by deep blue for open water areas (NGDC/NOAA ETOPO2 global bathymetry data is used), that is, pale blue represents shallow sea. White areas spreading around the Poles are ices.
In the Arctic region, the Eurasian and the North American Continents are connected through a relatively shallow ocean, which is less than several hundred meters in depth. In contrast, "the Southern Ocean," an annular deep ocean over 4000m in depth, spreads around the Antarctic Continent, separating the continent from other major continents in the southern hemisphere.
These shallow areas in the Arctic have less heat capacity compared with the Southern Ocean. It is easy to speculate whether the Arctic sea-ice is susceptible to global warming. Other signs of global warming are also found earlier in the Arctic region than the other regions.
