Atsumu Ohmura
Commendation
For outstanding contributions to the establishment of energy balance climatology and its applications to a better understanding of the relationship between the climate and glaciers
A list of five representative papers
- Ohmura, A. 1982: Climate and energy balance on the arctic tundra. Jour.Climatol., 2, 65–84.
- Ohmura, A., Kasser, P. and Funk, M. 1992: Climate at the equilibrium line of glaciers. J. Glaciol., 38, No.130, 397–411.
- Ohmura, A., Dutton, E., Forgan, B., Fröhlich, C., Gilgen, H., Hegner, H., Heimo, A., König-Langlo, G., McArthur, B., Müller, G., Philipona, R., Pinker, R., Whitlock,C.H., Dehne, K. and Wild, M. 1998: Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN/WCRP): New precision radiometry for climate research, Bull. Am. Met. Soc., 79, 2115–2136.
- Ohmura, A. and Wild, M. 2002: Is the hydrological cycle accelerating ? Science, 298,1345–1346.
- Ohmura, A. 2009: Observed decadal variations in surface solar radiation and their causes. J. Geophys. Res. 114 (D00D13); doi:10.1029/2008JD011290.
Major achievements
Dr. Ohmura has investigated the relationship between climate and glaciers through field observations in the Arctic, and has contributed to the elucidation of the effects of global warming on the mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet. He initiated the Global Energy Balance Archive (GEBA for 2,500 sites) and the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN, 60 stations), both of which are the projects of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). As a result, he produced a new generation global heat budget of the earth’s surface. During this work, he also made important discoveries, such as “the missing absorption”, the global dimming” and “the global brightening” of the atmosphere. At the same time, he contributed for educating and promoting young generation scientists at leading universities, such as Cambridge University, University of Tokyo, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH).
Nominator
Jun Matsumoto