Monsoon Asia Integrated RegionalStudy (MAIRS) and Capacity Building

AilikunInternational Program Office of MAIRS
Beijing, China

3rd GEOSS/AWCS workshop, 1Dec 2007, Oita, Japan

Vision of Monsoon Asia IntegratedRegional Study(MAIRS)“To significantly advance ourunderstanding of the interactions between
the human-natural components of theoverall environment in the monsoon Asianregion and implications for the global
earth system, in order to support thestrategies for sustainable development.”Monsoon Asia is one of thestrongest human-driven areas
57% of global population, it is thedensest area in the worldLong history of civilization and rapid
economic development in recent decades
Increasing emission of greenhouse gases
and air pollutants due to theindustrialization and urbanization
Most significant land degradation andland cover change

Land use change in China from 1980 to 2000
Grasslandeasedecreasedecreaseincreasedecreasedecreaseincrease

forestLand cover in 2000

acre
dese

Cropland
e
as
recin

Dry farmland
Paddy fieldrea
segrasslandinc

Desert andGobi

decr

Forestdecreasedecreasegrasslanddecrease

forestChange of sunshine duration(hr/d) 1960-2006(/10a)
55°N80°E

90°E

100°E

110°E

120°E

130°E

50°N
45°N
40°N
35°N
30°N
25°N
20°N

>0.5
0.2~0.5
0~0.2-0.2~0-0.5~-0.2<-0.5

By Zhao and Fu, 2007

Functions of Monsoon Asia inEarth System Dynamics• There are indicators that the intensive
and large-scale human activities in Asia
may have began to modulate themonsoon system;• Both the natural process and humanperturbation of monsoon system may
have profound impacts on the global
energy, water and biogeochemical cycles.

Key Questions of MAIRSIs the Asian monsoon system resilientto the human transformation of theregion’s land, water and atmosphere?
Are societies in the region more, orless vulnerable to changes in the Asianmonsoon?
What are the likely consequences ofchanges in monsoon Asia on the global
climate system?

Major achievements 2006-2007
MAIRS IPO formally opened at Jan 2006.
MAIRS accepted as the first IRS of ESSP, Nov 2006
MAIRS Initial Science Plan (WP1) presented, Oct,
2006
Scientific Steering Committee met 4 times (06, 07)
Building of MAIRS mountain,urban, coastal, semi-arid
working groups
MAIRS Initial Science Plan formally released inChinese (WP2), June 2007
MAIRS mountain group report (WP3)International workshops on dryland and urban study

Tokyo Bay

From Planning to Implementation (08-09)
In the following 2 years, MAIRS will focus ondeveloping the muti-discipline observation andresearches in

1. Aerosol-cloud-precipitation-climate
processes in Monsoon Asia
2. Land use change-climate interaction
3. water cycle/balance in Asian dryland
regionMAIRS Muti-discipline Observing Network inDryland East Asia
55°N

50°N

Atmospheric boundary Layer
Land surface processAerosolEcosystem

45°N

1141040°N

21516 31 691235°N

30°N
70°E

851413780°E

90°E

100°E

110°E

120°E

130°E

140°E

Development of Aerosol Observing
Network in the Yangtze River DeltaRegion

Capacity Building for MAIRSAs the development of scientific research,
MAIRS also wants to share the knowledges andexperiences in:
1, regional climate modeling2, observing and data unifying for study ofatmosphere boundary Layer and land-atmosphereprocess
3, remote sensing Land use/cover changemonitoring
4, ground and remote sensing observations ofaerosol

Capacity Building for MAIRS
MAIRS IPO is mainly supported by
Chinese Academy of Sciences,
especially by the Institute ofAtmospheric Physics (IAP), Chinese
Academy of Sciences.
IAP will be the one of the main
supporters and drivers for MAIRS
capacity building activities.

The Institute of Atmospheric Physics(IAP), CAS
1. The Institute of Atmospheric Physics(IAP) was established in 1928, it was
one of the oldest eight institutes in theresearch of modern natural sciences inChina.
2. Under the efforts of several
generations of scientists, IAP has
become an internationally renowned
institute on
atmospheric/climate/environment
sciences.
3. Now, IAP has 69 professors, 87
associated professors and 105
assistant professors. PhD course
students 223, master 95.

IAP
Research centers (9)State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for
Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics
State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer
Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry

Supporting teams
Information and DataCenter
Library

Key Laboratory of Regional Climate- Environment Researchfor Temperate East Asian, CAS
Laboratory for Middle Atmosphere and Global Environment
Observation
Laboratory of Cloud-Precipitation Physics and Severe
Storms

Editorial Division

Xianghe Atmospheric
Integrated ObservatoryInternational Center for Climate and Environment Sciences
The Nansen-Zhu International Research Center
Atmosphere Sub-Center of Chinese Ecosystem Research
Network (ASC/CERN )East Asian Monsoon System and Climate Predictability
Research Center

The National Key Laboratory of Numerical Modelingfor Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid
Dynamics (LASG)

Research focus
1.The research and development ofnumerical modeling system
2.Dynamics of weather and climate
3.New theory, method andexperiments of weather and climate
prediction.
4.Geophysical fluid dynamics

State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric BoundaryLayer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry(LAPC)
Research Areas•Atmospheric boundary layer structure, turbulent
characteristic over various land surface；massand energy exchange process between theatmosphere and the land surface;• Aerosols and atmospheric trace gases；
monitoring, numerical modeling and predictionof air pollution

Key Laboratory of Regional ClimateEnvironment for Temperate East Asia ( RCETEA)
Research Areas• Regional climate modeling• Integrated study of Asian monsoon
system under regional/global
environmental change• studies on abrupt change and extreme
events of the regional climate in Asia

Thank you!
http://www.mairs-essp.org
Info@mairs-essp.org
Ormairs@mairs-essp.org