1. Foreword
The Indo-Pacific sector is one of the key regions in the world climate variability from seasons to decades. However, compared to other parts of the tropics, the region has been paid less attention in both observational and modeling activities. Based on the tremendous assets accumulated during the TOGA decade, we are now going further beyond El Nino studies in this particular sector of the globe. New research targets include the newly discovered Indian Ocean Dipole, ENSO-Monsoon connections, Quasi-Biennial Oscillations and coupled variations in the Southern Ocean.
In order to harness rapidly growing scientific interests in observations and modeling of this region, FRSGC (JAMSTEC/NASDA) has decided to hold a symposium in Tokyo, under the auspices of Japan Foundation. Although this meeting has a multilateral nature based on our governmental cooperation with Australia, EU and France, we have invited leading scientists from other countries such as China, India, Korea, UK and USA.
We hope that the symposium will provide us a unique opportunity to enhance the multilateral climate research activities in the Indo-Pacific sector. We welcome inputs from all the participants, which will be also beneficial to the coming international program implementation.
We would like to thank all colleagues that have put time and energy into making this unique symposium real in a timely way. Our special thanks are due to Drs. Gary Meyers, Pascale Delecluse, and Antonio Navarra for their important roles in coordinating and advancing this important event.
Toshio Yamagata
Frontier Research System for Global Change (FRSGC)
