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Asian monsoon variability during the past 120 years
(FY2014-2018 Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research(S)）

Purpose and Background of the Research

Recently, climate change issues such as global warming have become a vital societal concern. However, the climatic data utilised for climatic change studies are very limited prior to 1950 in the Asian monsoon region, except for in India, Korea, and Japan (Figure 1), and many data are stored in paper or image formats. More than 60% of world’s population lives in the monsoon region of Asia. In particular, most of these people live in South and Southeast Asia and depend on agriculture, which is affected by climatic changes. To feed a growing population, the effects of climatic changes need to be minimised. Proper recognition of past climatic changes is also important for better climate prediction.

Figure 1　Distribution of stations where monthly rainfall data are available from the global GHCN-M data set for the year 1901

Our previous research found numerous climatic data stored in paper or image format. We intend to locate additional data from all over the world and digitise these as a data rescue activity. We then intend to utilise these data to reveal climatic changes in the Asian monsoon region through the past 120 years. The causes of these changes and the effects of global warming will also be analysed.