Hokkaido University Research Profiles

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impact of climate change: 1

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  • Uncovering the relationships among air pollution (aerosols, PM2.5), wildfires, snow and ice, and climate change in the Arctic and cryosphere for a sustainable society in the future!

    An atmospheric scientist working in the Arctic and cryosphere, tackling wildfires, air quality, snow and ice, and climate change

    I am conducting a wide range of research on wildfires and their air quality (aerosols and PM2.5), including analysis and prediction of the factors that cause them and impact assessment (climate, health, economy, etc.), using various research methods from observation to data analysis and modeling.

    • Figure 1b from Yasunari et al. (2018, Sci. Rep.). Daily mean PM2.5 concentration on July 25, 2014, calculated using NASA's MERRA-2 reanalysis data. The white circle indicates the location of Sapporo City.

    • A commercial version of the PM2.5 measurement system for cold regions, updated from the prototype in Yasunari et al. (2022, J. Environ. Manage.). Anyone can purchase it from Tanaka Co., Ltd. (http://kktanaka.co.jp/products; the iron box and the low-cost PM2.5 sensor must be obtained separately)

    • A climate (atmospheric circulation) pattern that can likely cause co-occurrences of European heatwaves and wildfires in Siberia and subarctic North America (Alaska and Canada), as discovered in Yasunari et al. (2021, Environ. Res. Lett.): the pattern was named the circum-Arctic wave (CAW) pattern because it is a pattern in which anticyclonic circulation is arranged to surround the Arctic. The figure is from Figure 9 of the paper (created by the current “Science Manga Studio Co., Ltd.”: https://www.sciencemanga.jp/).

    • In Yasunari et al. (2024, Atmos. Sci. Lett.), the authors used the commercial PM2.5 measurement system for cold regions and, for the first time, performed the local ambient air quality observation (i.e., PM2.5 measurement) in Qaanaaq, northwest Greenland, in the summer of 2022. They also captured the worsened air quality during the local open waste burning (the figure is the Graphic Abstract of the paper).

    Research

    In recent years, we have been hearing more and more news about wildfires. Large-scale wildfires can transport air pollution (PM2.5) not only to the area where they occur but also to areas downwind, potentially affecting the people who live there. For this reason, it is necessary to identify the causes of wildfires and the atmospheric aerosols (air pollution) they produce and assess the diverse effects (such as climate, health, social and economic) that follow. In addition, it is extremely important to predict these effects based on the knowledge gained from the perspective of taking measures for people living in the downwind area from where the fires occur. To achieve the above objectives, we have developed a portable PM2.5 measurement system for cold regions, conducting multi-location observations of air quality such as PM2.5, analyzing large-scale global data (satellite, model, re-analysis data, etc.), and conducting research using various methods such as machine learning prediction (we are also conducting joint research with NASA and interdisciplinary research).

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    Teppei J. Yasunari Specially Appointed Associate Professor
    Ph.D. in the field of Earth System Science
    Arctic Research Center, Hokkaido University

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