Abstract

A brief introduction is made for the 60 years of the Antarctic and Arctic activities in the atmospheric science and climate research in Japan. Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE) was started in 1956 related to IGY , and Syowa Station (69°S, 40° E) was opened on Ongul Island in 29 January 1957. Since then, scientific activities have been continued including 4 years close of the Station. Many activities were conducted during these years, rocket observations of aurora, meteorite findings in Yamato Mountains area, discovery of ozone hole and 3000 m deep ice coring back to 720 thousand years and so on. National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR) was established in 1973, as an inter-university research institute and also responsible in graduate education as a Department of Polar Science in the Graduate University for Advanced Studies. Atmospheric science is one of the main topics of JARE and NIPR , together with operational meteorology started in JARE -1. Research observations started in JARE -7, 1966, for ozone, radiation, katabatic wind, snow crystals, aerosols, cloud and sea ice, material cycle and atmospheric circulation, dynamics and so on. Among these activities, I was mostly interested in surface radiation budget, cloud observation from satellite (NOAA/AVHRR) and earth radiation budget by satellite. Now, a new Program of the Antarctic Syowa MST /IS radar (PANSY) composed of 1000 antennas is ongoing to search 3-D winds in the troposphere and middle atmosphere. Arctic research became active in 1990s, NIPR established research station in Ny-Alesund, Svalbard. Several atmospheric observations have been continued since then, and airborne atmospheric observations were conducted with the cooperation of AWI (ASTAR 2000, AAMP02 , ASTAR 04). A new all-Japan, multi-diciplinary research under Green Network of Excellence Program (GRENE), Arctic Climate Change Research Project (Fy2011-2015) is ongoing.